A $1.2 billion trading-education MLM settles for nearly $90 million in assets
The FTC and the Nevada Attorney General sued IM Mastery Academy — operating most recently as IYOVIA, and previously as iMarketsLive and IM Academy — alleging the company and named operators Chris Terry and Isis Terry used false or baseless earnings claims to sell financial-trading training and a multi-level-marketing "business venture" that took more than $1.2 billion from consumers since 2018. A May 2026 settlement requires five individual and corporate defendants to surrender nearly $90 million in assets against a $795.8 million judgment, with the FTC expecting more than $100 million in total recovery once other defendants' payments are included.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $1.2 billion
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- MLM pyramid schemes
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-17
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC and Nevada Attorney General filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Nevada on 1 May 2025, with the Commission voting 3-0 to authorise it.
- Named defendants include the company (operating as IYOVIA, and previously as IM Mastery Academy, iMarketsLive and IM Academy), ringleaders Chris Terry and Isis Terry, and salespeople Jason Brown, Alex Morton and Matthew Rosa, plus Brandon Boyd.
- The complaint alleges the company charged consumers up to $400 per month for financial-trading training taught by "trainers" with no formal credentials, while marketing claims promised consumers could retire in their twenties or make money "in minutes" or "in their sleep."
- The FTC alleges the company deliberately targeted young people, including through posts to college social media pages, and paid its own salespeople to sell others on the same opportunity as a multi-level-marketing venture.
- The FTC's complaint cites internal data showing roughly 60% of customers stopped paying within one month and about 90% stopped within six months.
- The May 2026 settlement requires the defendants to surrender assets valued at nearly $90 million — including eight luxury homes in New York, Nevada, Florida and Dubai, 13 home lots near Las Vegas, 19 vehicles including a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, and jewellery including a 15-carat diamond ring — against a $795.8 million judgment.
- Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: "The breadth of this scam is remarkable, from brazen earnings claims to the fact that their so-called investment trainers are often nothing more than salespeople."
- The complaint cites the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act and Nevada state law.
Why this case matters
By dollar figure this is the largest documented MLM pyramid case on this site, and it shows the mechanism in an unusually clean form: the “product” being sold was financial-trading education, but the money came from a multi-level referral structure selling access to that education to other people, not from anyone learning to trade successfully.
The dropout curve is the story
Two numbers from the FTC’s own complaint say more than any marketing claim could: roughly 60% of customers stopped paying within one month, and about 90% stopped within six months. A business whose own customers leave that fast is not failing to retain people who were satisfied — it is converting a one-time signup into as many months of payment as it can extract before the customer recognises the training was not the product.
Luxury imagery, funded by whom
The settlement’s asset list — eight homes across four states and Dubai, nineteen vehicles including a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, a 15-carat diamond ring — is not incidental. Recruitment videos in this category of scheme routinely feature exactly this kind of imagery as evidence the opportunity works. The FTC’s case is that it was funded by new recruits’ fees, not by trading profits.
The caveat
This matter was resolved through a stipulated settlement, in which the defendants agreed to the judgment and asset surrender without the court making a final finding of liability at trial and without the defendants admitting the FTC’s allegations. The $795.8 million judgment reflects the amount the FTC alleged was taken from consumers; the nearly $90 million in assets is what regulators were able to locate and require the defendants to surrender. This is a civil enforcement matter, not a criminal case, and no defendant here has been charged with or convicted of a crime in connection with it.
Sources
- FTC, State of Nevada Take Action Against IM Mastery Academy for Deceiving Consumers. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-17. Supports: The May 2025 complaint, the defendant names, the $1.2 billion figure, the $400/month training cost, the earnings claims, the college-campus targeting, the 60%/90% dropout statistics, the statutes cited and the Mufarrige quote.
- Lead Defendants in the IM Mastery Academy MLM Scheme to Turn Over Tens of Millions of Dollars in Assets to Settle FTC Charges. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-17. Supports: The May 2026 settlement, the nearly $90 million in surrendered assets, the $795.8 million judgment, the itemised asset list, and the $100 million-plus total expected recovery.