⚠️ Eight jurisdictions have acted against Aurum Foundation — including a criminal referral in Poland.

Scam awareness · public-interest information

“Aurum Foundation” is an alleged crypto-MLM Ponzi scheme.

Marketed as “AI trading bots” and a “neobank” promising 9.48%–15.01% per month from Dubai. Seven financial regulators have issued warnings and Poland has referred it for criminal prosecution. None of them found it licensed — anywhere.

7
regulator warnings
1
criminal referral (Poland)
0
valid licences
~472k
monthly site visits (May 2026)

What financial regulators say

Every row below links to the regulator’s own primary source. This is the documented public record as of 26 June 2026.

Jurisdiction Authority Date Action What they said
🇵🇱Poland KNF — Polish Financial Supervision Authority 11 Jun 2026 Criminal referral Suspected criminal offence under Art. 171(2) of the Banking Act (unauthorised use of the word "bank"). Referred to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw; concerns Aurum Neo-Bank Sp. z o.o. (Warsaw). Primary source ↗
🇷🇺Russia Central Bank of Russia (CBR) 18 Jul 2025 Pyramid warning Added to the warning list for showing "signs of a financial pyramid". Primary source ↗
🇳🇬Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 22 Jan 2026 Fraud warning "AURUM BOT" is not registered or licensed and exhibits the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme. Primary source ↗
🇬🇷Greece Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) 15 May 2026 MiCA warning "AURUM FOUNDATION LTD" has no crypto-asset authorisation under EU MiCA Reg. 2023/1114 (Art. 62/65) and is therefore operating illegally. Primary source ↗
🇳🇿New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA) 14 May 2026 Caution Public caution about Aurum Foundation; cites aurum.foundation and aurumfoundation.io. Primary source ↗
🇫🇷France Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) 12 Jun 2026 Blacklist Added to the AMF blacklist of unauthorised crypto-asset offerings (aurum.foundation, aurum-foundation.com). Primary source ↗
🇦🇺Australia ASIC — Moneysmart Investor Alert List 22 Jun 2026 Investor alert Listed on the Investor Alert List (aurum-foundation.com); holds no Australian Financial Services licence. Primary source ↗
🇭🇰Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) 22 Jun 2026 Alert list Listed as a "suspicious virtual asset trading platform"; cites aurum.foundation and aurum.trading and names ECO AURUM INVESTMENT L.L.C. (Reg. 2593404). Primary source ↗

Note: Switzerland is among the largest traffic sources (~10%) but had not issued a FINMA warning as of 26 June 2026. Do not confuse this with BaFin’s warning about a different entity, “Aurum-Fix”.

How the alleged scheme works

1. The promise

“AI trading bots” (EX-AI, Zeus, Neyro) and a “neobank” promising 9.48%–15.01% per month and a tiered 60%–95% “ROI share”. Returns this large and this steady do not exist in real markets.

2. The trap

A 35% penalty for withdrawing principal within a year, a $19.99 annual subscription, and rotating “no-fee” promos — all engineered to keep money in the system as long as possible.

3. The pyramid

A 15-rank MLM pays for recruiting new investors, not for selling a product. New deposits fund earlier participants’ “profits” — the textbook structure of a Ponzi and a pyramid scheme combined.

The logic test: if Aurum could reliably earn up to 15% a month, it would not need your money — nor an army of recruiters to bring in more.

Red flags

Each point is attributed to an independent source, a regulator, or the company’s own website.

Returns that cannot be real

Advertised returns of 9.48%–15.01% per month — with a "Quantum Alpha / NEYRO" product reportedly promoting 22.6%–31.4% per month. No legitimate asset manager produces guaranteed monthly returns like this; it is the signature of Ponzi marketing.

Source: BehindMLM review; CoinCodex sponsored article

Paid for recruiting, not for a product

A 15-rank unilevel MLM pays commissions for recruiting new investors (residuals up to 18.5%, matching bonuses up to 30%). With no genuine retail product, recruitment is the business — the definition of a pyramid scheme.

Source: BehindMLM review

Designed to trap your money

A 35% penalty is taken if you withdraw your principal within a year, plus rotating "no-fee" promos that nudge users to keep funds in. Lock-ins and withdrawal friction are classic mechanisms to delay the moment a Ponzi runs dry.

Source: BehindMLM review

Licensed nowhere

The site claims "4 International Licenses". Eight jurisdictions say otherwise: seven financial regulators warn it is unlicensed and Greece confirms no MiCA authorisation. Poland escalated to a criminal referral.

Source: CBR, SEC NG, HCMC, FMA, AMF, ASIC, SFC + KNF (Poland)

Allegedly fabricated on-chain trail

Independent analysis reports that user funds flow to a central wallet and that "internal transfers" shown to users are fake digits with invented TRX transaction IDs that do not appear on Tronscan — with 33M+ USDT/USDC sent to recipients that have no matching deposit.

Source: dehek.com investigation; BehindMLM comments

Your browser blocks it

Opening aurum.foundation in a browser with the MetaMask wallet triggers an active phishing/deception block, warning of secret-recovery-phrase theft and malicious transactions.

Source: Direct observation, 26 Jun 2026

No-KYC cards and money-laundering risk

The "neobank" offers prepaid cards (Nova / Imperium / World Elite) topped up with USDT and marketed with "KYC: None" — directly contradicting the company’s own anti-money-laundering policy.

Source: aurum.foundation/neo-bank; dehek.com

Hides from regulators, tells users to use a VPN

North American regions appear geo-blocked, and promoters instruct users to access the platform via a VPN — behaviour consistent with awareness of illegality.

Source: BehindMLM review and comments

Fake credibility

Claimed "Forbes" coverage was a paid contributor post, not Forbes editorial. Leadership bios assert senior roles at major firms (e.g. Binance, Morgan Stanley) that are unverified company marketing.

Source: BehindMLM review

Who is behind it

The roles below are those the company publishes about itself, combined with facts reported by the MLM-fraud publication BehindMLM. All are presented as alleged and attributed to a source.

Bryan Benson

Public CEO (since ~Feb 2025)

Listed by Aurum as CEO. Per BehindMLM: founder of Unchained Ventures (Joinn Finance, BoF); previously CVO at Patex (which BehindMLM describes as a crypto-staking Ponzi) and CSO at Kima. Bio claims of senior roles at Binance / Morgan Stanley are unverified company marketing.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

„Jan Kroger“

First front-man CEO (2024 – ~Feb 2025)

Per BehindMLM, an early public face with no verifiable track record — described as a likely "Boris-CEO" puppet for the hidden operators.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Ahmad Zen

Chief Marketing Officer

Per BehindMLM, a former promoter of Earn World (formerly Streakk), which BehindMLM describes as a Ponzi that collapsed in July 2024.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Shane Morand

Chief Network Development Officer (since Jan 2026)

Co-founder of Organo Gold; per BehindMLM, departed in 2018 after pitching crypto schemes to distributors, later linked to Trujivan and Decentra.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

The hidden operators

Independent reviewers assess that the real operators are hidden — believed to be Russian / eastern-European actors based in Dubai, behind a replaceable public "CEO". Cited indicators include Russian-language strings in the back-office source code and a pattern matching the earlier TLC Trading scheme. Their identities are not public.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Promoters

People who, per BehindMLM, actively promote Aurum — several with a track record in earlier collapsed schemes. Promoters market the scheme; they are not necessarily its operators.

Luigi Bruni

Promoter (Montreal, Canada)

Per BehindMLM, a top promoter of CashFX Group — which drew securities-fraud warnings in multiple countries — who promoted Aurum and then abruptly deleted his Aurum marketing. This prior history is the basis for the "Aurum = CashFX 2.0" comparison.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Sal Khan

Promoter

Per BehindMLM, a serial MLM-crypto promoter who came to Aurum from TLC Trading — a Polish/Russian Dubai scheme that collapsed in 2024.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Wayne Nash

Promoter ("Crypto Tech Investor", Canada)

Per BehindMLM, actively promotes Aurum via email and YouTube and instructs users to access the platform through a VPN — behaviour consistent with awareness that it is blocked or illegal in some regions.

Source: BehindMLM review ↗

Additional promoter names circulate only in reader comments and single secondary sources; we deliberately do not publish those here.

Frequently asked questions

Is Aurum Foundation a scam or legit? +

Seven financial regulators — including those of Russia, Nigeria, Greece, New Zealand, France, Australia and Hong Kong — have publicly warned about Aurum Foundation, and Poland referred it for criminal prosecution. Independent MLM-fraud journalism describes it as an alleged crypto/MLM Ponzi scheme. It is not licensed in any jurisdiction that has examined it.

What are people’s experiences with Aurum Foundation? +

Reported experiences match a classic Ponzi pattern: promised returns of 9.48–15.01% per month, blocked profit withdrawals, a 35% penalty for withdrawing your principal early, and dashboards that independent analysts say are fabricated. Browsers with the MetaMask wallet flag the site as deceptive/phishing.

Is Aurum Foundation regulated or licensed? +

No. The website claims "4 international licenses", but seven regulators state it is unlicensed and Greece confirms it holds no EU MiCA authorisation. Poland’s KNF treats the "Aurum Neo-Bank" as an illegal use of the word "bank" and referred it for criminal prosecution.

Can I get my money back from Aurum Foundation? +

Recovering funds from a Ponzi scheme is unfortunately unlikely. Report it to the authorities — this increases the chance of an investigation and asset freezes — and never use "fund recovery" services, which are usually a second scam targeting people who already lost money.

What are EX-AI, Neyro and the Aurum NeoBank? +

They are Aurum’s marketed products — "AI trading bots" (EX-AI, Zeus, Neyro) and a "neobank" with no-KYC prepaid cards. There is no verifiable external revenue; independent analysis indicates the displayed profits are fabricated and that user funds flow into a central wallet.

How do I report Aurum Foundation? +

Use the ready-made complaint templates on this site for the FBI (IC3), Dubai Police eCrime, FINMA, SEC Thailand, Chainabuse and more — just fill in your details and wallet addresses and submit. A step-by-step reporting guide is also provided.

Sources

Everything on this page traces back to a primary or independent source.