(Thank you to all the readers from Sajha. Hope you will browse around and leave comments to share your ideas. -mG.)
(Update on 4/28: Thanks to Khusbu Sarkar for pointing out that Rs. 6 Billion is actually equal to 600 crores and not 60 crores. As you said that is ten times as troubling! I have corrected the record.Thanks. )
Republica has a stunning report on a Nepali company called Unity Life International (ULI) which is apparently making some very, very big noises within the country and abroad. The sheer number on the headline - Rs. 6 Billion (600 करोड !!!) - is enough to attract attention. The full details of Unity's activities that Milan Sharma, the reporter, describes are frightening to read. So it turns out Unity has found its mojo in Nepal selling bogus products like life and health "assurance" plans (these sort of function like the energy drinks in the Quixtar/Amway scheme). Also Unity claims to have opened hospitals to build a network of providers for its health insurance.
Clearly the company is a pyramid scheme and Sharma commendably doesn't hesitate to call it that. Anyone in America who has been involved in the Amway or the Quixtar knows what a pyramid scheme is -- the idea is to use the promise of an easy but wildly profitable business venture (Quixtar sells daily use consumer products) to suck in a network of people whose only way of gaining profit is to help bring in more people to build a bigger and bigger network. The whole thing collapses in the end because the underlying business is a scam.
Sharma mentions in passing that: "Awash in cash, the company is now venturing into any field you care to name, from real estate to airlines to department stores to Direct to Home Satellite TV." So I decided to do a little bit of snooping to fill in the gap. What I found scared me further. Turns out there are not one, but already a extending web of numerous scam/fraud companies under this pyramid of fraud!
First here is Unity's website. Why is the life "assurance" company's first image on its website showing a picture of a rafting boat for a travel and tours company? What has travel and tours got to do with "life and health assurance?" Of course, it is not a crime to have various companies under one roof but why are the they marketed at one place?
(Update on 4/28: Thanks to Khusbu Sarkar for pointing out that Rs. 6 Billion is actually equal to 600 crores and not 60 crores. As you said that is ten times as troubling! I have corrected the record.Thanks. )
Republica has a stunning report on a Nepali company called Unity Life International (ULI) which is apparently making some very, very big noises within the country and abroad. The sheer number on the headline - Rs. 6 Billion (600 करोड !!!) - is enough to attract attention. The full details of Unity's activities that Milan Sharma, the reporter, describes are frightening to read. So it turns out Unity has found its mojo in Nepal selling bogus products like life and health "assurance" plans (these sort of function like the energy drinks in the Quixtar/Amway scheme). Also Unity claims to have opened hospitals to build a network of providers for its health insurance.
Clearly the company is a pyramid scheme and Sharma commendably doesn't hesitate to call it that. Anyone in America who has been involved in the Amway or the Quixtar knows what a pyramid scheme is -- the idea is to use the promise of an easy but wildly profitable business venture (Quixtar sells daily use consumer products) to suck in a network of people whose only way of gaining profit is to help bring in more people to build a bigger and bigger network. The whole thing collapses in the end because the underlying business is a scam.
Sharma mentions in passing that: "Awash in cash, the company is now venturing into any field you care to name, from real estate to airlines to department stores to Direct to Home Satellite TV." So I decided to do a little bit of snooping to fill in the gap. What I found scared me further. Turns out there are not one, but already a extending web of numerous scam/fraud companies under this pyramid of fraud!
First here is Unity's website. Why is the life "assurance" company's first image on its website showing a picture of a rafting boat for a travel and tours company? What has travel and tours got to do with "life and health assurance?" Of course, it is not a crime to have various companies under one roof but why are the they marketed at one place?
Unity's homepage also has a flashy banner of a "New Year Dhamaka." Once you click on that banner you get to see for yourself the juicy proof of Unity's pyramid business model. It is entirely based on what they call "प्रत्यक्ष सिफारिस or (Direct Reffer)." Basically what that means is you can pay money to join the program and then the more people you can refer to join it the more promise of bonuses. It is like the old "ढकुटी" games that used to give "steel दराज" as first place prize, which was popular at one time in Kathmandu.
Remember, but in this case what is Unity selling, why are these people joining the company for? Life and health insurance. How does the company plan to pay out for those insurance claims, when some member dies or needs health care? They are going to use the money coming in from new people to service the claims of the existing ones. But when the music stops, this musical chair will fall on its own weight. That is why it is a pyramid scheme. So you may ask, what is Unity doing with all the money they are raking in right now? Good question.
Now I scroll down to the bottom of the home page and see an even stranger photo: Unity Milk, Ghee and Dairy Products! What do those three companies - insurance, tourism, dairy products - have in common? Who are these geniuses who have suddenly found the business acumen and knowledge in three widely divergent industrial and service sectors - insurance, tourism, dairy products - to launch these business under a single brand? What market need or niche are they exploiting?
But the next company in the roster of Unity companies seems to be a even stranger choice even for Unity. There is a picture of a deer in bushes in the middle of the page under a quirky slogan: "अभ खाडी को डीजेल होईन, झाडी को डीजेल प्रयोग गरऊ" -- I wondered, बाबा! झाडी को डीजेल रे??? One of the rotating pictures under the slogan was a crude life-cycle figure of random bushes connected by arrows to a beaker containing what looked like gasoline. Clicking on this wonderful invention of diesel from bushes, I get to the homepage of another entirely new company: Crystal Bio Energy Nepal Ltd. After a little looking around, I am confused. The sole aim of Crystal Bio seems to be to promote planting of a plant called "Jatropha." But why?
Then I read Crystal Bio's (=Unity) explanation of the easy scientific process of producing झाडी को डीजेल from Jatropha and clearly understood their scam: "Bio-diesel is made through a chemical process called trans-esterification in which the glycerine is separated from the jatropha oil. The process leaves behind two products--alkyl esters (the generic chemical name for bio-diesel and glycerine a valuable by-product usually sold to be used in soaps and other cosmetic products. Once the glycerine is removed from the jatropha oil, the remaining molecules are, to a diesel engine, similar to petroleum diesel fuel. But there are some notable differences. Even though “diesel” is part of its name, there are no petroleum or other fossil fuels in bio-diesel."
And if you believe that mumbo-jumbo, I have a tall Dharahara that I want to sell to you:) This scam of "Jatropha-bio-diesel" has been exposed by a prominent British scientist among others, a long time ago. But the poor Nepali farmers are a long ways away from Royal Engineering Society. That's why Crystal Bio (=Unity) is able to go around the country selling these Jatropha seeds and "technical expertise" to unsuspecting farmers and also selling them life insurance while making away like bandits. Also, the worth of fertile land that could to used for profitable crops, going to waste due to farming the useless bush is doubly troubling. So Unity is not just looting the Nepali migrant laborers but also Nepali farmers.
But that is not all: how is Unity going to run all these fly-by-the-night business ventures? They will surely need an army of business leaders to run the dairy farm, the rafting agency, the bio-diesel plant, the insurance company, and on and on, right? Of course, they would. And Unity has already thought of that too.
Hence, there is another shady company: Re-Team, which is apparently a leadership training company. The introduction to the company makes it clear what they do: "Re-team means Research Team and makes different kinds of study on human development.This Team is the educating body of the fastest growing Company of Nepal Unity Life International Ltd. Nationally and Internationally; it organizes the Training programs, Seminars, Workshops and Counseling to the peoples. We don''t believe in providing only training but we try to mould participates in such a way that they could bargain a better opportunity."
Also, Mr. Dharmendra Chaudhary, the coordinator of Re-Team has posted a personal message to his "Partners" which explains the function of the Re-Team in the larger pyramid scheme of Unity. Mr Chaudhary writes: "It gives me enormous pleasure initiating RE-TEAM Business Education System in the field of Network Industry on the behalf of ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE INt'l LTD. We all know that we can change the shape of Nepal though Network Industry. Many Nepalese were directly or indirectly involving in various natures of Network Marketing Companies. With the help of very dynamic and experienced MLM professionals and visionary person of the ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE made it possible to establish RE-TEAM. We are providing different levels of training like Business, Leadership & Personal Development, career development Training for every interested person and organization.....and blah, blah, blah."
So what does it all mean? Why is a newish Rs. 60 Crore "assurance provider" company operating in Nepal, running all these new business ventures with questionable business prospects? What is Re-TEAM planning on teaching their partners? Of course, if you know anything about pyramid schemes, you already know the connection.
For those who are fortunate enough to have never before come in contact with other such schemes of network marketing, and who are wondering, what the connection is, here is the answer: Unity is not a company. It doesn't provide any service or produce any good. Whatever "life assurance or health assurance" products it is selling are bogus. What it wants is the membership fees collected from more and more "partners" who can use "प्रत्यक्ष सिफारिस or (Direct Reffer)" to bring even more and more partners who bring in more and more fees. All the collected fees are stashed in the name of shady/unprofitable companies (Unity Ghee, Travel Agency, Crystal Bio, etc) and laundered through black market by the promoters of the company.
Additionally, the RE-TEAM branch of the Unity teaches their existing "partners" on the techniques of network marketing to bring in more suckers. They are taught how to sell to a poor migrant worker the dream of buying "life insurance" for his dying dad. The partners are taught how to rope in the uneducated farmers by telling them stories of how Jatropha will bring them lots of money. The partners are trained on how to give slick presentation to their friends and co-workers. Above all, all the partners are taught never to question the authority of UNITY, the company and their masters. In a sense once you join to become a member, you become their slave - just giving them your hard earned money and also bringing more and more people to waste their money as well. The totally brain wash you.
Finally, as Sharma mentions, by the way, this is not the first time that these schemers have cheated on Nepalis. In early 2000s a company called Goldquest was criminally charged for engaging in similar fraudulent activities. There were various others. So it is very sad to read that none of the governmental regulatory bodies have acted to save the consumers who are being taken for a ride. Although there is ample reason to believe that some corrupt politicians are surely behind the company, the pathetic response of the government bureaucrats is shameful and indeed criminal. No wonder, under such lax and criminally unresponsive bureaucracy, the Managing Director of Unity, awash in all the cash of the poor Nepalis at home and migrant workers in Gulf, is pretty much boasting, "कसको बौ को के तगत?" There is little doubt that Unity's activities are illegal fraud and scam, either in law or its spirit, which makes it all the more sadder that the government allowed it to grow so big. Our only hope is to educate the people. Hope you share this article with your friends and relatives in Nepal, so they don't get sucked into this web of fraud.
So now that you know all about the wonderful pyramid scheme of UNITY, don't you just want to join them? (/don't do it, i'm just joking:). But hey, if you still want to join them, they even have a Facebook group with 215 friends!
Remember, but in this case what is Unity selling, why are these people joining the company for? Life and health insurance. How does the company plan to pay out for those insurance claims, when some member dies or needs health care? They are going to use the money coming in from new people to service the claims of the existing ones. But when the music stops, this musical chair will fall on its own weight. That is why it is a pyramid scheme. So you may ask, what is Unity doing with all the money they are raking in right now? Good question.
Now I scroll down to the bottom of the home page and see an even stranger photo: Unity Milk, Ghee and Dairy Products! What do those three companies - insurance, tourism, dairy products - have in common? Who are these geniuses who have suddenly found the business acumen and knowledge in three widely divergent industrial and service sectors - insurance, tourism, dairy products - to launch these business under a single brand? What market need or niche are they exploiting?
But the next company in the roster of Unity companies seems to be a even stranger choice even for Unity. There is a picture of a deer in bushes in the middle of the page under a quirky slogan: "अभ खाडी को डीजेल होईन, झाडी को डीजेल प्रयोग गरऊ" -- I wondered, बाबा! झाडी को डीजेल रे??? One of the rotating pictures under the slogan was a crude life-cycle figure of random bushes connected by arrows to a beaker containing what looked like gasoline. Clicking on this wonderful invention of diesel from bushes, I get to the homepage of another entirely new company: Crystal Bio Energy Nepal Ltd. After a little looking around, I am confused. The sole aim of Crystal Bio seems to be to promote planting of a plant called "Jatropha." But why?
Then I read Crystal Bio's (=Unity) explanation of the easy scientific process of producing झाडी को डीजेल from Jatropha and clearly understood their scam: "Bio-diesel is made through a chemical process called trans-esterification in which the glycerine is separated from the jatropha oil. The process leaves behind two products--alkyl esters (the generic chemical name for bio-diesel and glycerine a valuable by-product usually sold to be used in soaps and other cosmetic products. Once the glycerine is removed from the jatropha oil, the remaining molecules are, to a diesel engine, similar to petroleum diesel fuel. But there are some notable differences. Even though “diesel” is part of its name, there are no petroleum or other fossil fuels in bio-diesel."
And if you believe that mumbo-jumbo, I have a tall Dharahara that I want to sell to you:) This scam of "Jatropha-bio-diesel" has been exposed by a prominent British scientist among others, a long time ago. But the poor Nepali farmers are a long ways away from Royal Engineering Society. That's why Crystal Bio (=Unity) is able to go around the country selling these Jatropha seeds and "technical expertise" to unsuspecting farmers and also selling them life insurance while making away like bandits. Also, the worth of fertile land that could to used for profitable crops, going to waste due to farming the useless bush is doubly troubling. So Unity is not just looting the Nepali migrant laborers but also Nepali farmers.
But that is not all: how is Unity going to run all these fly-by-the-night business ventures? They will surely need an army of business leaders to run the dairy farm, the rafting agency, the bio-diesel plant, the insurance company, and on and on, right? Of course, they would. And Unity has already thought of that too.
Hence, there is another shady company: Re-Team, which is apparently a leadership training company. The introduction to the company makes it clear what they do: "Re-team means Research Team and makes different kinds of study on human development.This Team is the educating body of the fastest growing Company of Nepal Unity Life International Ltd. Nationally and Internationally; it organizes the Training programs, Seminars, Workshops and Counseling to the peoples. We don''t believe in providing only training but we try to mould participates in such a way that they could bargain a better opportunity."
Also, Mr. Dharmendra Chaudhary, the coordinator of Re-Team has posted a personal message to his "Partners" which explains the function of the Re-Team in the larger pyramid scheme of Unity. Mr Chaudhary writes: "It gives me enormous pleasure initiating RE-TEAM Business Education System in the field of Network Industry on the behalf of ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE INt'l LTD. We all know that we can change the shape of Nepal though Network Industry. Many Nepalese were directly or indirectly involving in various natures of Network Marketing Companies. With the help of very dynamic and experienced MLM professionals and visionary person of the ASSURANCE UNITY LIFE made it possible to establish RE-TEAM. We are providing different levels of training like Business, Leadership & Personal Development, career development Training for every interested person and organization.....and blah, blah, blah."
So what does it all mean? Why is a newish Rs. 60 Crore "assurance provider" company operating in Nepal, running all these new business ventures with questionable business prospects? What is Re-TEAM planning on teaching their partners? Of course, if you know anything about pyramid schemes, you already know the connection.
For those who are fortunate enough to have never before come in contact with other such schemes of network marketing, and who are wondering, what the connection is, here is the answer: Unity is not a company. It doesn't provide any service or produce any good. Whatever "life assurance or health assurance" products it is selling are bogus. What it wants is the membership fees collected from more and more "partners" who can use "प्रत्यक्ष सिफारिस or (Direct Reffer)" to bring even more and more partners who bring in more and more fees. All the collected fees are stashed in the name of shady/unprofitable companies (Unity Ghee, Travel Agency, Crystal Bio, etc) and laundered through black market by the promoters of the company.
Additionally, the RE-TEAM branch of the Unity teaches their existing "partners" on the techniques of network marketing to bring in more suckers. They are taught how to sell to a poor migrant worker the dream of buying "life insurance" for his dying dad. The partners are taught how to rope in the uneducated farmers by telling them stories of how Jatropha will bring them lots of money. The partners are trained on how to give slick presentation to their friends and co-workers. Above all, all the partners are taught never to question the authority of UNITY, the company and their masters. In a sense once you join to become a member, you become their slave - just giving them your hard earned money and also bringing more and more people to waste their money as well. The totally brain wash you.
Finally, as Sharma mentions, by the way, this is not the first time that these schemers have cheated on Nepalis. In early 2000s a company called Goldquest was criminally charged for engaging in similar fraudulent activities. There were various others. So it is very sad to read that none of the governmental regulatory bodies have acted to save the consumers who are being taken for a ride. Although there is ample reason to believe that some corrupt politicians are surely behind the company, the pathetic response of the government bureaucrats is shameful and indeed criminal. No wonder, under such lax and criminally unresponsive bureaucracy, the Managing Director of Unity, awash in all the cash of the poor Nepalis at home and migrant workers in Gulf, is pretty much boasting, "कसको बौ को के तगत?" There is little doubt that Unity's activities are illegal fraud and scam, either in law or its spirit, which makes it all the more sadder that the government allowed it to grow so big. Our only hope is to educate the people. Hope you share this article with your friends and relatives in Nepal, so they don't get sucked into this web of fraud.
So now that you know all about the wonderful pyramid scheme of UNITY, don't you just want to join them? (/don't do it, i'm just joking:). But hey, if you still want to join them, they even have a Facebook group with 215 friends!
