Jury Convicts ‘Blessings in No Time’ Reality TV Stars
Pyramid scheme allegedly defrauded 10K people of over $25 million
A federal jury in East Texas has convicted a couple of running a massive pyramid scheme from their Frisco, Texas, home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The couple reportedly told recruits they could turn “blessings” of roughly $1,400 into fast, outsized payouts—and even get their money back if they were unhappy.
Marlon and LaShonda Moore appeared on OWN’s “Family or Fiance” / Video screenshot
LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, a married couple who once appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s reality show “Family or Fiancé,” are charged with multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering, according to the indictment.
From about June 2020 through June 2021, the Moores co-founded and ran BINT Operations LLC, a chain-referral pyramid scheme called Blessings in No Time (or BINT).
By leveraging their fame, the couple promoted the scheme through weekly livestreams that drew thousands of viewers, framing it as an invitation-only community designed to help members weather the economic shutdown.
The couple urged participants to pay at least $1,400 as a “blessing”. They were promised returns of up to 800% within weeks—along with refund assurances that prosecutors said were impossible to honor.
They built the program around “playing boards” with four tiers—Fire, Wind, Earth, and Water. New participants started as “Fires” and were directed to pay the “Water” participant in the center either $1,400 or $1,425, resulting in a total payout of roughly $11,200 to $11,400 to the person in the Water slot.
The board would then split, participants would move up a tier, and they would be required to recruit new participants to keep the cycle going. At times, the indictment says, the Moores altered the payout structure (a change they called “fusion”), so that a “Water” participant would receive four payments totaling $5,700, making it faster and easier to generate payouts when recruiting slowed.
Starting around August 2020, participants were required to use an online platform called Conecmi to populate boards, coordinate payments, and handle board splits. Participants paid an $85 monthly fee for access and applied via the website bintapp.com. Prosecutors say the Moores profited by placing themselves (or family members) into the prime “Water” positions on multiple boards, and by diverting substantial sums from the monthly fees paid to Conecmi.
The allegation also describes efforts to avoid detection: participants were instructed not to use words like “gift” or “blessing” in payment memos when sending money through CashApp, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.
Members were threatened with removal if they posted about the program on social media, the indictment says. It adds that the couple reassured participants that BINT was lawful by referring to supposed government employees at the IRS and the Pentagon who were taking part.
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Prosecutors say the operation recruited more than 8,000 people and prompted participants to pay more than $10 million into the program. The wire-fraud counts cite, among other examples, interstate transfers of approximately $1,400 and $1,425 from victims in Arkansas sent via CashApp into accounts in Texas, and livestream broadcasts from Texas to participants outside the state.
The money-laundering counts point to transactions prosecutors say involved proceeds of wire fraud, including a $20,000 transfer toward a loan payment, a $15,937.06 charge at a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, and a $446,761.74 transfer to a mortgage lender tied to a property on Kennington Drive in Prosper.
“The harm caused by greed-driven, deceptive investments promising returns too good to be true cannot be overstated,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group.
The indictment also includes a notice of intent to seek forfeiture, including at least $2 million in proceeds and, if necessary, substitute assets up to that value.
A jury convicted the couple on nine counts each: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and three counts of money laundering.
The court has not yet scheduled sentencing. Each conspiracy and wire-fraud count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, and each money-laundering count carries a maximum of 10 years.
CORRECTION: The first paragraph in this article has been corrected from referencing a “federal grand jury” to “federal jury.”
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