Draft:GSPartners

GSPartners, also known as GSB, Gold Standard Bank, Swiss Valorem Bank, Lydian World, Gold Standard Trade, G999 and GSPro is a multi-level marketing company.

GSPartners was founded by Josip Dortmund Heit in 2020. Heit is the former chairman of the company Karatbars International. Following the collapse of Karatbars, he has tried to distance himself from the company. Other key people in GSPartners are Michael Dalcoe, Tony De Gouveia, Haidy Nitsa Nakos, Dirc Zahlmann, Bruce Hughes, Andrew Eaton and Alex Cocindau. The Romanian citizen Alex Bodi has been connected to GSPartners as well as Karatbars International. Bodi is a well known underground figure in Romania and was arrested in 2020 for participating in human trafficking.

The company GS Partners & Co UK Ltd was registered with an address in Liverpool in England, but was ordered to wind up by the court in 2022. GSB Gold Standard Corporation AG is a company registered in Germany. It was initially registered in 2010 with the name Gesella Bau UG, and changed its name to GSB Gold Standard Banking Corporation AG in 2020..

GSPartners has offered investors the possbility to earn money by investing in the digital products offered by the company, and by recruting new members based on a multi-level marketing model. However, the promises of extremely high return of investment and the fact that the company is not registered to offer investment in any jurisdiction has thrown suspicion that the company is a Ponzi scheme/pyramid scheme.

In the beginning GSPartners promoted the G999 token. The focus was then changed JONE tokens which were supposed to be tied to the J One Towers in Dubai, however, the company behind J One Towers has denied any relations to GSPartners or Josip Heit. GSPartners then shifted to XLT Tokens which were claimed to be tied to Mövenpick Hotels and Apartments in Dubai.

In order to stop negative reviews, GSPartners has initialized legal action against several people and websites. The website FinTelegram has been reporting extensively about the company, describing it as a Ponzi scheme, and has received threats of legal action by the lawyers Alex Spiro and Avi Perry from the U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.

The lawyers Ben Irle and Christian-Oliver Moser from German law company Irle Moser has also participated in the process of making legal threats to the website Behind MLM. They have registered the trademark The Fort Worth Press, and have used the website to post press releases in favor of GSPartners and Josip Heit. In 2021 GSPartners filed a complaint against the YouTuber Christopher Saunders who exposed the company as a Ponzi scheme, and accused him for libel and slander. The case was dismissed in 2022.

The South African athletes Victor Matfield, Herschelle Gibbs and Lucas Radebe has been hired by GSPartners to promote the company. The TV celebrity Sophia Thomalla and the Spanish footballer Míchel Salgado has also participated in the promotion of GSPartners. The boxer Floyd Mayweather, who in 2018 was been fined for promoting ICOs unlawfully, has also been promoting GSPartners. as well as the football player Roberto Carlos.

Many countries and states have issued public warnings against GSPartners, Josip Heit and related companies. In November 2023 Texas State Securities Board issued an emergency enforcement action in an attempt to prevent GSPartners from doing more harm.

Other jurisdictions to react are:
 * Comoros
 * Quebec
 * Alberta
 * British Columbia
 * Ontario
 * Arizona
 * Mississippi
 * Florida
 * Arizona
 * New Hampshire
 * Australia
 * Arkansas
 * Wisconsin
 * New Zealand
 * Alabama
 * South Africa