Happy Monday, everyone. This week’s anti-MLM post is about a company that went into pre-launch a couple months ago and has since opened up to actual customers after spending nearly 6 weeks signing up distributors. The company is called Elomir and as of right now, the fanfare has subsided. I remember watching a lot of Elomir content from anti-MLM YouTubers and unless I’m living under the rock, it was the first time we saw a new multi-level marketing company operate first as a Ponzi scheme and then as a full-blown MLM company with a product. In this week’s edition of Anti-MLM Mondays, we’re dissecting the company and where it went wrong
As always, if you want to read more anti-MLM content on this blog, you can check it out here
Brief history
Back in July, the first news of Elomir emerged in the MLM world and under the anti-MLM radar. It was a company that was claimed to be founded in 2021 by Toan and Van Nguyen, but it was actually founded by Terry LaCore. His company, LaCore Enterprises, is also the parent company of other MLMs such as Pruvit and Perfectly Posh. Elomir and LaCore Enterprises are based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but the Nguyens are in California
Back to the Nguyens, I found an article from the website Behind MLM which did a deep dive on Elomir and the husband and wife team behind it. They are listed as co-founders and Van is listed as the CEO. The article stated that Toan Nguyen is a crypto bro who had been involved in another Ponzi Scheme called DeFinity Fi Academy, which has since been locked behind some sort of a crypto paywall. The couple has also been in several more companies like that for over a decade. For those who have read my crypto bro post, you know that I am not a fan of cryptocurrency, bitcoin, NFTs, and other decentralized blockchain stuff. Already, this was a red flag. And although Toan stays shilling for crypto behind the scenes, his wife Van has been front and center in terms of promoting Elomir and their signature product Axis Klarity. She has also gone live to explain the reason, or lack thereof, why the product hasn’t been keeping up with the supposed demand from distributors and even the customers… if they had any.
Axis Klarity
Let’s turn the focus to Elomir’s signature product Axis Klarity. It’s billed as a “yellow strip” that is supposed to calm you as soon as you put it on your tongue to dissolve. It’s also supposed to “bypass the digestive tract”, but there’s one problem with that statement… saliva is part of the digestive tract.
Going to the Elomir website and clicking on shop, Axis Klarity (as of this writing) is still the only product listed on the site and it costs US$89 for 3 packs. Back when it first came out, it was available as a 3-pack product with 30 strips each. Production delays meant that everyone who signed up only got 1 out of the 3 packs, with the other 2 to come at a later date. I’m not sure if Elomir held up to that promise, but considering it’s an MLM, I will take it with a grain of salt.
According to the site, each strip contains 3 simple and effective ingredients that blend and are made by Diffusive Technology, which is exclusive to Elomir. Scrolling a little further and there it is, the three ingredients in each strip. They are:
- Curcumin: a substance of Tumeric
- NAC: Usually found in onions. This ingredient became a focus of the product
- Thiamine: usually found in meats, whole grains, and fish. It’s B1 Vitamin
NAC stands for N-acetyl-cysteine, and it became a focus because the FDA said that dietary supplements can’t contain NAC unless it’s prescribed. It is also the least known ingredient out of the three. As it is technically a drug, huns that have taken the strips on Facebook Live have, and this is with my own eyes, hallucinated. That’s pretty much it. It calms you down, but you also do a million other things, somehow. Some commentators have said it’s akin to taking acid.
#changetheconversation and #hitthestrip
Like many MLM companies, Elomir would have stayed under wraps if it wasn’t for the two hashtags on Instagram… Change the Conversation and Hit the Strip. As of this writing, there are not as many posts as they were at the height of it all. This past summer, especially around the 4th of July and beyond, pictures upon pictures were uploaded by the day of huns taking these yellow strips and placing them on their tongues. That’s not all, though. Since some huns didn’t get their products when Elomir started their pre-launch phase on July 5, they would turn to other items that fit the “yellow strip” bill, like a piece of Kraft’s Cheese, Listerine strips, Fruit Rollup, Post-It Notes (yes, they did that) and so on. And in true MLM fashion, it also includes health claims. I’ll leave you with links to the Elomir flair of the antiMLM subreddit and the Elomir Exposed subreddit that showcased this “phenomenon” and an Instagram post highlighting these claims
Elomir Zoom Calls
If you’ve been consuming anti-MLM content, you would know every MLM company has done at least 1000 Zoom calls over the course of their lifetime and Elomir is no exception. Going back to Behind MLM, the blogger followed up with a post reacting to a Zoom call from Van Nguyen where she tried to address regulatory concerns surrounding the production of Axis Klarity. Instead, she danced around it, put blame on production breakdown, defended her husband’s crypto investments, and even attacked critics and the anti-MLM movement for exposing the company.
Browsing the Website
Going back to the website, I clicked on Compensation Plan on the bottom of the page and I was taken to a PDF file. MLM companies publicize their compensation plans on their websites and they would have a least 4 different ways to earn (Elomir had 5) and usually, 1 or 2 are by sales only. That was the case with Elomir in which the first one was through retail. The other 4 are from sign-up bonuses, team bonuses, rank bonuses, and 3x bonuses… in other words, you have to have a team to earn more money.
The rank names are just lazy, to be honest… Icon, then Icons 1-12, and finally, Legend. You can earn a 15% commission on retail sales, but you can also earn a 5% commission off of your downline on multiple levels, earn a monthly team bonus, and get a rank bonus starting at Icon3 (you have to maintain it for at least 2 months), and they can triple your bonuses if you reach Icons 3-5 from the day you join until the end of that month.
Yeah, so very sketchy in my opinion. Also, it’s on par with other MLM compensation plans. I will post about it in the coming weeks.
The signup cost is US$49, but it can be waived if you sign up with a US$250 Enrollment Pak, which contains 3 boxes of Axis Klarity. At the beginning, it was the only way to enroll in Elomir.
Conclusion
Between the social media posts, crypto, the ties to LaCore, their product containing NAC, and the multiple zooms explaining the production problems away, Elomir had the hallmarks of an MLM/pyramid scheme. Imagine creating a company, promising to have the products ready at launch time, and when things go wrong, blame everything but from within. Several critics have pointed out that it was poorly planned. I believe that, and I also believe that the Nguyens created this company to mask Toan’s crypto scam. That part is just speculation, but it is something to think about.
The Most Inconsistent Person in the World 