Norway's financial regulator just reopened an investigation into Lyoness—a company it cleared of wrongdoing just three years earlier.

The Norwegian Gaming Board shut down its first investigation into Lyoness back in 2014 with a clean bill of health. The company, the regulator concluded, did not engage in illegal activities in Norway. There was just one problem: the Gaming Board's entire investigation relied on marketing material provided by Lyoness itself.

In June, the regulator announced it was starting over. This time, they had new information. The Gaming Board claimed Lyoness had created a sister company called Lyconet specifically to dodge the pyramid scheme label after regulators identified the original operation as exactly that—a pyramid scheme.

Lyoness has never publicly admitted to this connection.

When BehindMLM analyzed Lyconet in 2014, they found the bones of the pyramid scheme remained intact, just with new window dressing. "Accounting Units" became "Balance Categories." Raw dollar amounts transformed into abstract "shopping points." The core mechanism stayed the same: sign up as an affiliate, pump money into points, and earn returns by recruiting others to do the same.

Lyconet even doubled down on the scheme's Ponzi elements in 2015 by introducing a passive €1,500 investment option that promised returns without active recruitment.

The Gaming Board's reopened investigation came after receiving over fifty public complaints about Lyoness and Lyconet. The regulator sent information letters to the company citing Norway's pyramid scheme laws and requested Lyoness respond to the concerns.

Those responses will likely follow the same playbook as before. Lyoness' legal team probably has another stack of marketing materials ready to overwhelm regulators with paperwork and misdirection.

Whether that strategy works a second time is unclear. What's certain is that complaints continue rolling in. Losses among Lyoness affiliates haven't stopped despite Lyconet's supposed compliance overhaul.

In Norway, at least one affiliate is fighting back. Attorney Josef Fromhold told Norwegian newspaper Bergensavisen that one of his clients lost money in Lyoness. The affiliate declined to comment publicly through her lawyer.

Fromhold says around a thousand Lyoness affiliates across eight countries—Austria, Sweden, Germany, Greece, France, Latvia, India, and Australia—are pursuing civil action against the company.

On January 11, 2018, the Gaming Board sent Lyoness a letter with its findings: the company was declared an illegal pyramid scheme in Norway and ordered to cease operations immediately.

🤖 Quick Answer

What led Norway to reopen its investigation into Lyoness?
Norway's financial regulator reopened the Lyoness investigation after discovering that the initial 2014 clearance relied solely on marketing materials provided by Lyoness itself. New evidence suggested the company created a sister company called Lyconet to circumvent pyramid scheme regulations after authorities had identified its original structure as illegal.

Why was Lyoness initially cleared by Norwegian authorities?
The Norwegian Gaming Board's 2014 investigation concluded Lyoness did not engage in illegal activities in Norway. However, this determination was based exclusively on information and marketing materials submitted by Lyoness, lacking independent verification or external evidence.

What is the alleged purpose of Lyconet in relation to Lyoness?
According to the Norwegian Gaming Board, Lyconet was established as a sister company specifically designed to help Lyoness evade the

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