Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘We’ll make most millionaires ever’
Outrageous claims mark launch of new get-rich-quick scheme
THERE’S something about Moyn and Monir Islam that reminds me of the sort of people who get fired during the first episode of The Apprentice.
Their principal talents seem to be the ability to wear a suit and spout risible cliches.
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’,” chunders Moyn.
“You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great,” says Monir.
Unless I’ve missed one, the brothers from London are now plugging their third get-rich-quick scheme.
First they were involved in promoting Onecoin, which claimed to create 300 millionaires in one year but turned out to be one of the most notorious investment frauds of recent times.
“I believe in the Onecoin concept, I believe in the vision,” declared Moyn. “We have moved into our first dream home, we have bought our dream car,” boasted Monir.
Onecoin was supposed to be a rival to Bitcoin but it couldn’t be sold on any cryptocurrency market and the only way to make money was by convincing other people to join.
Now the founder, 39-year-old Ruja Ignatova, is on the run from the FBI and two of her key associates are awaiting sentencing in the United States for their role in the £3billion global fraud.
At one rally Moyn and Monir were carried shoulder high to the stage to gush about the fortunes to be made from Onecoin – but I’m sure they were just innocent dupes.
Next they moved into flogging “wearable technology”, gizmos you can strap to your wrist to measure your heart rate and stuff.
Not that they were actually selling the products. What they promoted at mass rallies was a scheme to earn money by recruiting others.
“Can we be at least worth £2billion by 2020?” asked one of the brothers at a London recruitment rally in January 2018. “Absolutely yes, if not more.”
So why had they bailed out of Onecoin?
“Things have started to blur up quite a bit,” one of the brothers said vaguely at a rally in 2017 for the new venture.
“The money we are making right now, we don’t feel good about it.”
Now wearable technology has been dumped by Moyn and Monir and they’ve moved into yet another barmy venture.
It’s called Melius, which superficially is a business selling software to help people trade on crypotocurrency and foreign exchange markets.
Yet again, the reality is that it’s all about recruiting others.
“Every time you refer customers or a distributor who buys a subscription you earn commission,” says Monir in an online video.
You get 20% of what every new recruit pays, and then 10% from everyone they recruit in turn.
“31 December 2022, this will be a billion dollar company,” he gushed with depressing familiarity.
“This company is going to produce more millionaires than any company that I know of.”
Much of this is horribly irresponsible, such as the encouragement to pump as much money into this as you can, borrowing it if necessary. “Successful people think about not ‘Can I afford it?’ but ‘How can I afford it?” he says.
You’re urged to target friends and family and organise at least four sales presentations a week: “If you do that you are bound to become a crown ambassador”.
So you might lose all your friends but at least you get a ludicrous title.
Most of what they’re saying is rehashing old material, including a sob story about how they used to be so poor they slept rough until striking it rich.
As before, you’re urged to get in quick and ignore anyone who might caution against this madness.
A promotional video tries to associate Melius with genuine business giants.
It claims: “Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Alibaba, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber and now Melius, the next big giant in the industry.”
Really?
Given how much the Islam brothers like the sound of their own voices, I was surprised that they haven’t replied to my requests for a chat.
investigate@mirror.co.uk