LYONESS Australian MD Jef Rowlison Accused Of Slander - Is A Court Case Imminent?

(updated 27th May 2019)

This is Jef Rowlison, the Managing Director of Lyoness Australia:

And these are his contact details:

Jef Rowlison
Managing Director
myWorld Australia Pty Ltd
Suite 2, Level 12, 222 Pitt Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Email: jef.rowlison@myworld.com Phone: +61 2 9007 1000 Web: www.myworld.com



Jef is also listed as Managing Director at myWorld America Inc:

and  Managing Director at  The Lyoness Child & Family Foundation

2017-2018

What a busy man Jef is, all that Lyoness business to oversee.

But Jef is having a few problems at the moment. Let me explain...

A gentleman named Ian Chittick recently managed to obtain a refund from Lyoness though legal action with the help of Ben Ecker of Konflikt Management in Austria.

Ian had previously asked Lyoness for a refund of the money he paid them and Lyoness had refused.
So Ian contacted Ben and his team of lawyers instead to act on his behalf - and Lyoness
coughed up a refund without ever seeing the inside of a court room!

Ian released this You Tube Video as a testimonial:
https://youtu.be/x6JXcPaSXAE

and then wrote this open, public letter of thanks to Ben, his legal team in Austria and Craig Wotton ( former Lyoness Australian MD)


Subject: Lyoness/ Lyconet -
‘Great News’ Settlement of Our Claims
To: Craig Wotton, Ben Ecker and the Austrian legal team.

A BIG THANK YOU to you all for handling the settlement of my claims in such a professional, painless, simple and timely manner, recovering our considerable Lyoness Voucher investments and Down Payments (Personal, Asia/Pacific, USA, Mexico & India Programs) something that was previously denied by Lyoness/ Lyconet and its new found divisions of myWorld/ Cashback World, etc, etc.
Nothing but A WIN, WIN, WIN!!
A ‘special thanks’ to you Craig Wotton (former Managing Director, Lyoness Australia) for assisting many members of my downline team of over 2,500 in the completion and lodgement of their claims for lost investments (Down Payments, Merchant costs, etc, etc), some extremely large (in the tens of thousands $$) some not so large. NO WIN - NO FEE!! *** Nothing to lose, everything to gain! How true!
Ben, your efforts in exposing the reported ‘pyramid practices’, the Austrian Court ruling and judgements against Lyoness (now known as Cashback World/ myWorld/ Lyconet) to the broader world community and for making Lyoness/ Lyconet accountable to the members that paid money in good faith into the Lyoness/Lyconet scheme is greatly appreciated, through your persistent ongoing investigations over many years and well documented and respected website blogs: http://benecker.com/category/lyoness/
I can fully understand Lyoness/ Lyconet Management not wanting any publicity on these serious issues. It’s not that long ago certain key leaders and management were referring to you as a ‘scaremonger’ presenting false claims. They must now be eating ‘humble pie’ with their personal reputations in tatters. You have certainly cast some doubt on their reputations, which must now be at an all time low. No doubt there will be a lot of nervous Lyconet Marketers seeking your services over the coming months, now that Norway and Italy have been banned by the regulators, with reported member claims in Italy alone amounting to over €53 million Euros: https://behindmlm.com/companies/lyone...
Norwegian Gaming Authority Lyoness must stop illegal pyramid activity in Norway: https://lottstift.no/en/om-oss/aktuel...
Italia Autorità Antitrust Pyramid selling and misleading promotion, sanctioning over 3 million to Lyoness: http://www.agcm.it/media/comunicati-s...
Keep up your excellent work. I would not hesitate recommending your services to any fellow victims, not only here in Australia but across the world.

Kind Regards Ian Chittick

But now it gets really interesting.

Back in October 2018, Jef sent out this generic email to all his Australian team:

From: Jef Rowlison
Sent: Wednesday, 31 October 2018 6:12 PM
Subject: MLM Scam

Thank you to all who attended our Video Conference yesterday and for the positive contribution to minimizing the disruption to the business.
For those unable to attend here is a summary:
The company is aware of crooks activity but we need to find the balance is between not giving this person ‘oxygen’ and protecting our combined business.
For instance- a letter from our solicitors to a dummy email address will simply give the person even more material to misrepresent.
The reality is that crooks FAKE NEWS is just that. FAKE
I have been through all the links and every incendiary claim is just that- a claim, not supported by any evidence.

Our legal team in Graz have confirmed that there are no legal investigations in Europe, but to provide some further advise:
After the Public Prosecutor’s office had lodged an appeal against this decision, the Higher Regional Court Vienna has, in its decision dating from 12.04.2016, confirmed the decision made by the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna and has subsequently declined the accusations made by the WKStA.

The preliminary proceedings against both, Lyoness Europe AG and CEO Hubert Freidl, were therefore to be terminated.

The Vienna Regional Court’s decision clearly states that Lyoness does not run a pyramid scheme in the sense of § 168a StGB (Austrian Penal Code) and that any investigations regarding the accusation of serious commercial fraud are to be terminated.

This decision is legally binding and can no longer be subject to appeal.

In the case about Lyoness Norway

Lyoness has appealed this decision in order to prove to the Gaming Authority that our business model is legal. The authority decided that we may continue to operate the Shopping Community (Cashback World), that Members may continue to make their purchases at existing Loyalty Merchants and that new Members may register for Cashback World until a decision has been made regarding our appeal.

There is no evidence available that the businesses in Turkey, Italy or any other jurisdiction is being investigated despite what crooks claims
Hard for us to prove a negative with a negative.
This person is merely re-posting other people’s views with the intention of hurting your business.

Mostly they are re-posts of articles in ‘MLM Marketing’, ‘pissed off consumers’ and Tara’s blog.

Tara’s Blog for instance takes the incorrect view that the company is fraudulency claiming Tesco is loyalty merchant when the case is they are a gift voucher merchant- like eBay, like booking.com. etc.

Every network marketing group suffers this
Amway Scam - http://www.moneyaftergraduation.com/2013/09/16/amway-is-a-pyramid-scheme/
Herbalife Scam - https://www.luckscout.com/herbalife-pyramid-scheme/
ACN Scam - https://ethanvanderbuilt.com/2014/04/29/acn-scam-yes-opinion/
AVON Scam - https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/avon-scam-targeting-avon-representatives-c433836.html
And we can go on and on about every MLM in the world.
The first line of defence is Members talking to Members and prospects.
Do you believe that you get benefit from Lyconet membership, do you get benefits as a merchant?
If the answer is YES- then that is the opportunity you are offering, regardless what that person does to detract from your goals
Become a digital army!
· Post your stories on yours and our Facebook, Instagram etc.
· The more you do the more you will swamp the haters

What is the Company doing:
· We have approached Facebook to take these posts down and are talking with ACMA -the government organization that deals with such complaints- this will need to be reported by recipients of the email.
Here’s a link https://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/Internet/Complaints/Spam-complaints
· Our legal people are ready to act- but we do need to know who the person is.
· Newsletter- we are including a warning about Spam and Scam emails in the next Merchant Newsletter and a request to contact us if they receive them
· Reputation Management- we hare engaging a PR agency that has expertise in reputation management . This was in plan for 2019 but we have bought this forward to create ‘good news’ stories to counter negative stories- this will take a little time to impact but will be effective
· Testimonials- we will be shortly posting some new testimonials that we shot in the Central Coast
· Personal contact with merchants-we will contact any merchant who has received such a Spam email to re assure them that the claims are not true and that the company does operate according the rules and laws in every country
· Company statement-I am working with Chris ad the team to present a simple but clear statement of our continued values and rebuff the false claims

Our way forward
· is to confirm our value to anyone who questions it.
· I have offered to contact personally any merchant , and have done so already
So far we have had no applications to terminate
Best regards and remember - Together We are Strong

Jef Rowlison
Managing Director
Lyoness Australia Pty Ltd
Level 12, 222 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000, Australia
T +61 2 9007 1017 M +61 418 825 852
E jef.rowlison@lyoness.com.au
https://www.lyoness.com/au

So, to re-cap:
The Managing Director of 'Lyoness Australia' and 'myWorld America' Jef Rowlison, sent out an email to his Lyoness Team claiming that a number of sites/forums/blogs - including my own - are all carrying fake stories and lies about Lyoness and are not to be believed.

He says:

'Our legal team in Graz have confirmed that there are no legal investigations in Europe, but to provide some further advise:

'After the Public Prosecutor’s office had lodged an appeal against this decision, the Higher Regional Court Vienna has, in its decision dating from 12.04.2016, confirmed the decision made by the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna and has subsequently declined the accusations made by the WKStA.'

This was dated 12th April 2016. Fair enough. But it's now 2019 and this is the Austrian  judgement now:

Aug 01, 2017
The Supreme Court in Vienna has rejected the appeal On the 18th of May 2017, the Austrian Supreme Court in Vienna delivered a long overdue, 53-pages-long verdict (Verdict Supreme Court General T&Cs, Ref. no.
'The judge Mathilde Beranek from the Commercial Court in Vienna, Legal Department 58.1 Vienna, convicted Lyoness as a snowball system and declared the company’s General T&Cs to be null and void (Case No. 581 Cg 44/16y-11).

And ITALY/Norway:

First, a fine of 3.2 Mio € was imposed, which could be seen as a warning shot. Significantly more serious are the findings of the investigations that are similar to Norway’s findings. This is no surprise since the structure and procedures of Lyoness are the same in all countries.
After the conclusion of a long inquiry, the competition authority (AGCM) stated that:
The promotion system for the purchase model “Cashback” Lyoness Italy S.r.l. uses, is incorrect, because it is a pyramid scheme/snowball system, which the Consumer Protection Act classifies as a definitely misleading business practice.
The system revolves around a fee-based discount card with which consumers can “save money” in certain stores. Only the leaders of the Lyoness system yielded high profit rates with the members’ “careers”.

Jef is denying that lawyers in Germany have managed to secure refunds for Lyoness customers. 
(But then, Jef is hardly likely to confirm this is true, since thousands of customers who have lost life savings could then legally use this route to get back the money Lyoness stole)

And what of the criticism directed at me? Jef says this of me:

'Tara’s Blog for instance takes the incorrect view that the company is fraudulency claiming Tesco is loyalty merchant when the case is they are a gift voucher merchant- like eBay, like booking.com. etc.'

My view is not incorrect Jef. You state over and over again that dozens of National Retailers are 'LOYALTY MERCHANTS' of yours , not 'gift-voucher merchants', 
'LOYALTY MERCHANTS'. 

They do NOT give Cashback.

They do NOT give shopping points.

They are NOT Cashback World members.

They simply sell you gift vouchers. That's it. But by calling them 'merchants' of Cashback World you are implying that these Retailers are connected to you in some way, which they definitely are not! 

And what about the specific case of Ian Chittick obtaining a refund?

Jef sent this generic email communication on May 1st 2019, again to all his team:

From: Jef Rowlison
Subject: Please have your members report Chittick and Craig Wotton to Scam watch

Date: 1 May 2019

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam

Talking with NSW Fraud Squad they recommend that everyone who receives these emails or texts report this on the ACCC Scam watch- see link attached.

I have made a report on behalf of Udo Starkis with his permission
Here is the description that I used-each person should personalize for themselves.
Ian Chittick and accomplice Craig Wotton are claiming to recover funds deposited by Lyon(ess)

No such payment have been made by the company. They are targeting hundreds of members unsolicited and often that have no association with them by email and text.
I am the Managing Director of Lyoness Australia and confirm that we have made no such payments.
They are operating with a German based businessman -Ben Ecker of Konflict Management who is also operating this scam in Germany

If everybody does this then the authorities will be more likely to follow up

We have previously reported Wotton and Chittick to ACCORN- the government sponsored cyber security watchdog and the NSW Fraud Squad

If everyone get behind this action and tells all their members we are more likely to stop this cancer

Thank you

Jef Rowlison
Managing Director
myWorld Australia Pty Ltd
Suite 2, Level 12, 222 Pitt Street Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Email: jef.rowlison@myworld.com Phone: +61 2 9007 1000 Web: www.myworld.com

So Jef is blatantly calling Ian Chittock a liar and a scammer!
But some very basic checks and banking records would prove conclusively that it is in fact JEF that is lying, and NOT Ian.

This email communication from Ian to his team confirms his refund:

From: Ian Chittick
Date: 24 May 2019 at 2:58:46 pm AEST
Subject: Lyoness/ Lyconet - EVIDENCE OF MY SETTLED CLAIM

Hi Folks,

A MUST READ as your 'BOOKED UNITS' and 'CLOUD Investments' are at RISK!

Reference is made to the below email, which is self explanatory.

As you know there has been a lot of FAKE NEWS being spread by Corporate, Retford and other key leaders, continual threats, abuse and referring to me being associated with an international SCAM and as being a FRAUD.
Others who know me believe otherwise.
Thank you to those kind people who sent me a recording of RETFORD's 'Private Invitation only' Webinar last night, the content of which includes serious 'slanderous' and 'defamatory' statements against me, which will now be dealt with accordingly.

Those people who joined this webinar to listen to more of his FAKE NEWS, Corporate SPIN and BS, I can assure you all, that two of those MEMBER ID's listed in my earlier email are MINE! They are not FAKE or FRAUDULENT.

Can you please explain to me, why RETFORD and ARATOON are sitting on the TRUTH, as each have been provided with evidence of my SETTLED CLAIM being paid into my bank account?? (see below email)

Both these clowns are going to look pretty stupid in front of a Judge, under oath and in the media..
You be the judge of who is telling the TRUTH.

As I have said before:

I stand by my ‘truthful’ and ‘honest’ testimonial at: https://youtu.be/x6JXcPaSXAE and look forward to standing in front of any Court of Law and provide proof of payment.

Personally, I welcome any investigation by the NSW Fraud Squad, ACCC, ACCORN or any other regulatory organisation, the media and any Court of Law across the world.
GREAT NEWS!

Overnight, the first of many Lyconet/ Premium members in my down line team received notification of their SETTLED CLAIM, from Ben Ecker of BE Konflikt Management. I can assure you there will be a lot more in the coming months, which will no doubt severely affect the Retford, Reynolds, Aratoon down line and income levels.

More Claims lodged this week.
More Claims Settled this week.

You might want to revisit last weeks recorded STARS Mastery webinar to get the TRUTH, at this link: https://youtu.be/GKyQVhTgErg

MORE EVIDENCE

If you are genuinely interested in getting your MONEY BACK, you can view all the evidence of this Austrian Court (Commercial Court of Vienna) judgement against Lyoness, in favour of all member victims across the world at:
Austrian Judgement: Re 61 Clauses of Lyoness T&C's Null & Void (see the PDF, I sent in an earlier email) (Open in Chrome to translate to English).
This Current Affairs video reveals the 61 clauses case that the VKI in Austria has won against Lyoness, in favour of victims across the world. Bernard Wagner who was the M.D of Bulgaria is featured: https://youtu.be/Tia2qvq7OWE?t=502
You will find more detailed information at the Fromhold Lawyers website: https://www.fromhold.net/agb-von-lyoness-sind-nichtig and: https://www.fromhold.net/lyoness
Another Austrian Law Firm successfully lodging CLAIMS for victims across the world against Lyoness: https://www.breiteneder.pro/en/cases/lyoness  

 IS THIS REALLY MORE 'FAKE NEWS'?

You might want to reconsider joining RETFORD's future 'private and confidential' WEBINARS, knowing they are full of Corporate SPIN and BS and FAKE NEWS and follow the future TRUTHFUL public blogs of the trusted Derek Miller.

GET YOUR CLAIMS LODGED, BEFORE YOU 'MISS OUT'!

I wish you well in your decision making.
Enjoy your weekend.

PASS ALONG!
You have a 'Duty of Care' responsibility to everyone in your down line team!
Regards
Ian
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: BE Konfliktmanagement <info@bekm.eu>
Sent: Monday, 8 April 2019 10:51 PM
To: Ian Chittick
Cc: Craig Wotton
Subject: BEKM / Payout for you

Dear Ian,

We are pleased to inform you that we are preparing your disbursement which will be commissioned within the next few days.

The payment AUD xx,xxx.00 (AUD xx,xxx.00 - 7,5 %, second fee) will be transferred to the following bank account:

Account Owner: Ian Chittick
Bank: XXXXX Bank
Account: XXXXXXXXX
Swift Code: XXXXXXXXX
BSB: XXX-XXX (Please check the bank details!)

Please note!

We will first pay the claimed amount less our fees. The cession/assignment will remain unchanged for realisation of interest of other additional claims.

As soon as interest or other claims are being payed out, the payment procedure will be repeated.

At last, we would like to thank you for the confidence you have shown us. We are happy about every recommendation to others.

With best regards

Your BEK-Team

B. Ecker

I'm told that a possible Court case for Slander is being considered by both Ian and Ben and I genuinely hope they take Jef to court. Watch this space...


Jef is asking people to report us to this link:
https://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/Internet/Complaints/Spam-complaints

Which is a government site to report SPAM.

But I'd advise you to report Jef and Lyoness to this link:
https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/report-a-consumer-issue

Which is a government site for reporting SCAMS!


27th May 2019


An update from Craig Wotton - former Lyoness MD in Australia:


Dear Lyoness members,

Firstly I would like to congratulate all of the members that have now received successful settlements from BE Konflikt Management in Austria, claims are being settled within 9 months of lodgement which is a very acceptable time frame considering the large volume of now thousands of claims being put to Lyoness via BE Konflikt Management and our Austrian lawyers.

In the last few weeks Lyoness have gone about terminating members accounts of some of the top leaders in Australia that have been extremely loyal to pushing Lyoness’s cause, what is ever more disturbing is that Lyoness seem to think that they can go about termination members accounts and refuse to refund your money that is held in trust and in some cases totalling many thousands of dollars.

On Monday the 20th of May, Derek conducted a very constructive webinar exposing his findings and experiences in dealings with Lyoness.

Please find below a link to the recording of Derek's Star’s Mastery webinar that is well worth sharing:

https://youtu.be/GKyQVhTgErg

I would like to commend  Derek Miller and Carolyn Phillips for their outstanding leadership over the years that they have built their Lyoness network in Australia they are outstanding leaders and I feel very honoured to be now helping their teams successfully lodge claims to recover money invested in the Lyoness scheme.

Please feel free to pass on my contact details to any further parties that require our assistance in reclaiming money back from Lyoness.


Kind regards

*****

Just in, some more evidence of Lyoness refunds:

Subject: Fw: Lyoness/ Lyconet - History of my SUCCESSFUL CLAIM AGAINST LYONESS

Hi Folks,

A MUST READ!

For your information.

Self explanatory.

Another happy former Lyconet Marketer and team leader gets his SETTLED CLAIM ('Booked Units') paid directly into his bank account, impacting on the Retford/ Reynolds/ Arratoon down line. More to come.

EVIDENCE ATTACHED.

Is this more FAKE NEWS being promoted by Corporate and Retford? You be the judge!!

I'm not sure that RETFORD and his small group of 'blind mice' will want to believe Allan's 'testimonial' with clear evidence of his SETTLED CLAIM. Let's see how he reacts!

Would you and your team like to get your money back?

PASS ALONG!

You also have a 'Duty of Care' responsibility to each member of your down line team.

Regards

Ian

_____________________________________________________________________________

From: Allan Day <********@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, 27 May 2019 12:49 PM
To: Ian Chittick
Subject: Fwd: History of my SUCCESSFUL CLAIM AGAINST LYONESS

Hi Ian,

I have attached the History of my dealings with Ben Ecker of BE Conflict Management Inc , regarding my Claim to have my Booked Unit Payments within and outside Australia refunded to me.

As you are aware, you in good faith introduced this venture to me, and at the start, all the research completed by yourself, me and others, indicated that this was the business to help SME’s and individuals enjoy additional funding for their retirements.

In the early years, this did look like the case, but as time went on, processes started to change, promises of other counties coming on board did not happen, and additional noise from Europe regarding the validity of Lyoness as being a “non pyramid scheme” was surfacing

Also, the ongoing name changes of the Business, which incorporated continual changes of their Terms and Conditions, started alarm bells ringing for me.

The most concerning thing for me was not the losses that I could incur, but the losses to my Family and Friends was the hardest thing for me to swallow, and that is why I was so happy to find that people like Craig Wotton, Ben Ecker and yourself, were passionate to make people aware of what is happening in the  European Courts, to make Lyoness accountable for their miss representations to their members all around the world.

Initially I was scared about putting my Claim in with Ben, but I saw that if I didn’t , I may have not been properly representing my down line members, and would feel even worst that I did not allow them the chance to recoup their hard earned funds.

As it has turned out, it certainly was the correct decision, and most of my members have now put their claims into action.

My experiences with Craig, Ben and yourself have been very professional, which I cannot say has been shown to you guys by several Australian Lyoness Representatives, who appear to have their “collective heads in the sand”, about what is  unfolding in the Courts in other Countries. Do they think that Australia is immune to this? I don’t know.

I am happy to provide this information to you, to satisfy providing evidence to the “Fake Claim Brigade”, and I have no problem in showing the amount of my successful claim.

I wish all our Members a successful Claim experience that we have enjoyed.

Cheers

Allan Day

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

From: BE Conflict Management Inc. <info@bekm.eu>
Date: Fri, May 24, 2019 at 5:15 PM
Subject: Payment by agreement
To: Allan Day <********@gmail.com>
Cc: Craig Wotton <craigwotton1@gmail.com>

Dear Allan,

we have paid out AUD 4,231.87 (-AUD 1,20 bank-fee) today as per our agreement.

Please inform us as soon as you can confirm the payment!

Thanks for your order.

Your team from BEKM

best regards

Ben Ecker