Raffaele Battisti, CEO of Nexyiu, is the hidden hand behind an Italian operation promising gift card returns that is actually a textbook Ponzi scheme. The company, registered as Nexyiu Italia Srl in Verona, deliberately obscures its leadership and ownership details. Domain registration in June 2018 traces to Battisti, who resides in Trentino, Italy.
MarketMovers, an Italian financial news outlet, revealed in late 2020 that Battisti and Danilo Certelli each hold a 50 percent stake in Nexyiu. Battisti’s prior business, Quadra Srl, a manufacturer of electronics, filed for bankruptcy before Nexyiu’s launch. Adding to the opacity, Nexyiu’s official corporate address is a bar, lacking any genuine office space or verifiable operational headquarters. Certelli remains an almost invisible figure online, with no significant digital footprint beyond Nexyiu.
The investment pitch is intentionally simple. Participants hand over cash and receive gift cards purportedly worth more than their initial investment over a 36-month period. An initial outlay of €499, for example, is promised to yield €40 monthly in gift cards. A €1,999 investment is slated to return €170 monthly. The financial projections are unsustainable. Over three years, a €499 investment would yield €1,440 in gift cards. This calculation fails to account for the fundamental flaw: participants receive gift cards, not actual profits, and their cash is tied up with no guarantee the company will remain solvent for the full term.
Nexyiu’s operational model is entirely dependent on continuously recruiting new investors. The company’s compensation plan is structured to reward affiliates for drawing fresh capital into the system. A seven-tiered affiliate ranking structure incentivizes growth through recruitment. A “One Star” affiliate must secure €200 in total investments from their recruits. A “Seven Star” affiliate is required to drive €100,000 in investments and personally recruit five individuals holding higher ranks.
The compensation plan employs a unilevel commission system. This means recruits are placed directly under an affiliate, and their recruits are placed under them. Commissions then flow upwards through the structure. This setup is mathematically designed for only a fraction of participants to profit. Pyramid schemes inherently concentrate wealth at the top, with approximately 99 percent of participants ultimately losing their investment.
Nexyiu lacks any genuine products or services. The only tangible exchange involves cash flowing into the company and promises flowing out. Affiliates are essentially marketing membership in the scheme itself, a clear characteristic of a Ponzi operation disguised as a legitimate multilevel marketing business.
When a company conceals its ownership, when its leaders have past bankruptcies, when its corporate address is a bar, and when the primary means of profit is recruiting others into a gift card scheme, it is a signal to disengage. The founders of Nexyiu appear to have deliberately avoided transparency, relying on potential investors to forgo due diligence.