SKYBIZ Review and Profile

SKYBIZ no longer appears to be active as a direct sales company.

SkyBiz.com was shut down in 2001 and is no longer active. A federal settlement created a $20 million consumer-redress fund after the FTC charged that the company operated an international pyramid scheme.

Original Npros business profile for SKYBIZ, preserved below for archival purposes:

The FTC filed for an injunction against SkyBiz.com, World Service Corporation, and James S. Brown, Elias F. Masso, and Kier Masso.

SkyBiz.com began operating from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in November 1998 under the direction of executives including James S. Brown, Elias F. Masso, Nanci H. Masso, Kier E. Masso and Stephen D. McCullough. The company promoted the SkyBiz 2000 home-based business program internationally, eventually recruiting participants in more than 200 countries. SkyBiz presented itself as an internet and e-commerce company, but its principal offering was a downloadable "e-Commerce Web Pak" that participants purchased for approximately $100 to $125. The package was promoted as a tool for creating an online business, although the sales presentations concentrated heavily on the income participants could supposedly earn through the SkyBiz compensation program.

Participants, known as Associates, earned compensation by recruiting additional people who purchased Web Paks. The plan also depended on those recruits bringing further purchasers into the organization. Associates were encouraged to purchase multiple Web Paks to increase their earning positions and potential commissions. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission later found that the program could not provide the e-commerce business represented in its marketing and that payments were contingent on continued recruitment. Evidence presented in the U.S. case showed that more than 96% of SkyBiz participants lost money.

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against SkyBiz and its principals in May 2001, alleging that the company used seminars, conference calls, websites and promotional materials to make deceptive claims that Associates could earn thousands of dollars per week. In June 2001, a federal judge halted the operation, froze its assets and appointed a receiver. The court later ordered the defendants to return tens of millions of dollars held in an Irish account so the money could be preserved for consumer restitution. Australian regulators separately obtained Federal Court orders in September 2002 declaring the SkyBiz 2000 program a pyramid selling scheme and prohibiting the company from repeating the conduct.

A settlement entered in January 2003 established a $20 million consumer-redress fund and permanently prohibited the defendants from operating pyramid schemes or making misleading earnings representations. Nanci Corporation International was permanently barred from multilevel marketing, while Elias Masso was barred from MLM activity for 22 years, James Brown for ten years and Kier Masso for seven years.