About 1400 young people listen breathlessly to the controversial businessman Alex Morton in the Chassé Theater in Breda. Morton is affiliated with the American company IM Academy, which has been convicted in Belgium for organizing a pyramid scheme. How can this company in Brabant just go about its business? “It deliberately seeks out the loopholes of the law.”
IM Academy presents itself as a training institute where you can take courses on crypto trading, becoming successful on social media and positive thinking. The first month you pay 250 euros and then 170 euros per month.
Omroep Brabant will also become a member. We get access to the course website, a personal coach and the WhatsApp groups of IM Academy Netherlands. A number of young people who are highly regarded in the organization come from Brabant.
“It’s a piece of cake, if you just know how to do it.”
Our coach is also from Brabant. He tells us it’s “easy” to earn $10,000, $20,000 or even $50,000 a month, “as long as you know how to do it.” Since many of these ‘coaches’ still work part-time, they apparently haven’t quite figured it out themselves yet either.
According to the coach, it will take some time to master crypto trading, but there is also an easier way to make money. If you ensure that other people in your area also become members of IM Academy, you will receive a fee for this. Our coach encourages us to bring in 12 new people within two weeks.
Recruiting new people in your own circle is called network marketing. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but it strongly resembles a pyramid scheme and that is prohibited in the Netherlands. People at the top of the pyramid earn a lot of money and people at the bottom often lose money.
“People are very much encouraged to think positively.”
Claudia Gross, lecturer at Radboud University, has been researching network marketing and pyramid schemes for years. According to her, the way IM Academy uses network marketing has many characteristics of a pyramid scheme. “It’s very much about recruiting new people and big promises are made to get rich.”
Pyramid schemes are also heavily focused on the positive attitude. “People are very much encouraged to think positively, so that you shut out reality. We call that toxic positivity. You are only concerned with what you want to achieve and do not see how much time and money that costs and what it does to your friends and family.”
Research shows that especially vulnerable people fall for network marketing. “These can be young people who are still looking for who they are. They want to belong somewhere and do something with their lives. In addition, they can be people who have little to spend.”
“They have a product that is supposed to hide the fact that it’s about recruiting.”
IM Academy is being tackled in other countries, but not in the Netherlands. What’s up with that? According to Gross, the company is deliberately looking for loopholes in the law. “The law stipulates that it is a pyramid scheme if it is mainly about recruiting others. We often see that they have a product that has to hide that it is mainly about recruiting people.”
Gross indicates that the Dutch authorities do not have a good overview of the companies. “Many international companies have their headquarters elsewhere. Recruitment mainly takes place online and in their own circles. It is very difficult to get a grip on that.”
“There is too little knowledge and no one is really responsible.”
Inquiries with various authorities confirm this picture. They cannot say who they are investigating or refer to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Market (AFM). He indicates that he is familiar with IM Academy. She does not say whether she is currently investigating the organization.
The Ministry of Finance has stated that the enforcement of pyramid schemes is the responsibility of the Gaming Authority and the judiciary. “We cannot ban crypto trading, but we do warn: pay close attention and don’t rely on the blue eyes of influencers.”
Gross believes that one organization should be responsible for network marketing companies that resemble a pyramid scheme. “The law needs to be changed. They need to look more specifically at their products. Are they really selling something or is it more about recruiting people?”
Both IM Academy and a number of young people from Brabant who are high in the Dutch top of IM Academy did not answer our questions.
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Omroep Brabant itself became a member of IM Academy and spoke to young people who left the organisation. You can see that in this episode of HOW..?
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