QNet has operated for 25 years under the radar. How?

The company was founded in 1998 by Vijay Eswaran, a Malaysian businessman who built QNet from the ashes of a failed partnership with another network marketing venture. The official headquarters sits in Hong Kong, but QNet conducts virtually no business there. In practice, the company operates out of Malaysia.

The origin story reads like a business school cautionary tale. In the mid-1990s, Eswaran and Joseph Bismark partnered in network marketing with an American company thriving in the Philippines. Their group, the V Team, became the company's largest revenue generator. When the American company cheated them, Eswaran and Bismark faced a choice: walk away or take responsibility for the 1,500 people who had invested their savings based on trust in these men.

They chose the harder path. In September 1998, they founded QuestNet—later rebranded as QNet—from a office in Manila's Philippine Stock Exchange Centre. The company initially sold gold and silver coins.

What started as one company has metastasized into at least 76 shell entities. QNet operates as a subsidiary under QI Group, a structure that appears designed to shield the parent company from legal liability. By establishing operations under different names in different countries, QNet has created a maze of corporate separation.

The company has been strategic about where it avoids scrutiny. Despite its Hong Kong headquarters, QNet steers clear of conducting business in Hong Kong or mainland China. Everywhere else has proven messier.

The Philippines Department of Trade and Industry issued QuestNet a cease and desist order in 2003. That same year, Bhutan's Royal Monetary Authority investigated GoldQuest—one of QNet's brand names—and concluded it operated as a pyramid scheme. Nepal's Home Ministry banned GoldQuest in 2003. Sri Lanka followed suit in 2005. Iran did the same.

An Interpol alert was issued following a Philippine investigation into Vijay Eswaran and several GoldQuest officials.

Yet QNet persists. The company has survived regulatory crackdowns, investigations, and bans across multiple countries by fragmenting its corporate structure and maintaining operational control through subsidiary networks. Each time authorities move against one entity, another shell company absorbs the business under a new name.

Malaysia remains the company's safest harbor. Outside that country, QNet's history reads as a pattern of regulatory trouble resolved not through reform but through relocation and rebranding. The fundamental question remains unanswered: how does a company banned in multiple nations for operating pyramid schemes continue operating at scale?

🤖 Quick Answer

What is QNet and when was it founded?
QNet is a network marketing company established in 1998 by Vijay Eswaran, a Malaysian businessman. Originally headquartered in Hong Kong, the company primarily operates from Malaysia. It was created following the dissolution of a previous network marketing partnership involving Eswaran and Joseph Bismark with an American venture operating in the Philippines.

How did QNet originate from a previous business partnership?
QNet emerged after Eswaran and Bismark's V Team, which generated significant revenue for an American network marketing company in the Philippines, was allegedly defrauded. Rather than abandoning their 1,500 investors, Eswaran established QNet to assume responsibility for the members who had invested their personal savings in the previous venture.

Why has QNet maintained operations for 25 years?
QNet has continued functioning for over two decades through

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