DANNY DE HEK
Scammers rely on silence. We make noise.
Welcome to the Avengers Anti-Fraud Alliance, led by Danny de Hek, a New Zealand investigative journalist whose work exposing scams, Ponzi schemes, MLMs and financial fraud has been featured by The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ABC Australia, RNZ and others.
This podcast takes you inside real investigations.
We follow the money, identify the people behind fraudulent operations, examine corporate records, court documents, blockchain transactions, marketing material, leaked communications and digital evidence — then put what we find into the public record.
Some investigations begin with a victim contacting me. Others start with an anonymous tip, a suspicious Zoom meeting, a cryptocurrency wallet, a court filing, or an Avenger somewhere in the world saying: “Danny, you need to look at this.”
The Avengers Anti-Fraud Alliance brings together researchers, whistleblowers, victims and ordinary people who are tired of watching scammers operate without scrutiny.
Patreon helps fund that work and gives supporters a closer look behind the investigations — including updates, evidence, developing stories and material that doesn't always fit into a YouTube video.
I don't accept payment to remove investigations. I don't sell reputation management. And when someone I investigate disagrees with my reporting, I give them the opportunity to respond.
The objective is simple:
Investigate. Analyse. Expose. Protect.
If you're a victim, whistleblower or you've discovered something that deserves investigating, get in touch.
Scams thrive in darkness. The Avengers turn on the lights.
DANNY DE HEK
LIVE MORE — The $380 Million Lie
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
[Intro]
Keep more.
Make more.
Live more.
That was the promise.
But somebody had to pay for it.
[Verse 1]
He talked about security,
He talked about a plan,
Real estate and collateral,
Put your future in his hands.
Ten percent every ninety days,
Guaranteed, they said,
Properties standing underneath it,
Nothing here to dread.
Retirement money, savings,
Credit opened wide,
College funds and borrowed cash,
All flowing to one side.
They thought their money built the loans,
They thought the numbers proved it,
But the money wasn't making money—
New investors moved it.
[Pre-Chorus]
The payments kept arriving,
So everybody believed,
Another cheque, another friend,
Another family deceived.
More money through the doorway,
More confidence outside—
While the man who sold financial freedom
Was learning how to Live More inside.
[Chorus]
Keep more!
Make more!
Live more!
A yacht was waiting offshore.
Private jets and Land Rovers,
Cabo underneath the sun,
A luxury bus rolling down the highway—
While the Ponzi kept on running.
Three hundred and eighty million,
More than two thousand lives,
You can dress a lie in real estate—
But you can't hide where the money goes forever.
[Verse 2]
A hundred salespeople selling,
Four percent when money came,
President's Club and Chairman's Council,
Luxury trips became the game.
Put the logo behind home plate,
Put the name upon a car,
Make the company look successful,
Make the founder look the part.
Write a book on financial freedom,
Tell them how the wealthy live,
Show them everything that money buys—
But never show them what produced it.
Because a stadium isn't evidence,
And a yacht can't prove a trade,
A photograph beside success
Doesn't show you how it's paid.
[Pre-Chorus]
Then regulators started digging,
Following every wire,
Through the properties and bank accounts,
The numbers climbed higher.
The collateral started crumbling,
The investment story broke—
Some properties supposedly backing the money
Didn't even exist.
[Chorus]
Keep more!
Make more!
Live more!
That yacht had the perfect name.
Millions flowing into luxury
While investors played the game.
Private jets and Land Rovers,
Cabo underneath the sun,
A Prevost rolling down the highway—
While the Ponzi kept on running.
Three hundred and eighty million,
More than two thousand lives,
The lifestyle wasn't proof of profits—
The investors funded the lifestyle.
[Bridge]
August twenty-four,
The SEC came through the door.
Freeze the assets.
Bring the receiver.
Follow the money.
Find the believers.
The advertisements disappeared,
The guarantees were gone,
And all those symbols of success
Couldn't keep the story strong.
Then January twenty-six—
Guilty.
Wire fraud.
No presentation.
No sales pitch.
No collateral sheet left to hide behind.
Just a courtroom...
And the truth about the money.
[Breakdown]
Seventeen and a half years
Was what the government would recommend.
The judge looked at the damage—
Twenty.
Twenty years.
The maximum.
For the financial strategist
Who taught everybody else
How to bulletproof their finances.
[Final Chorus]
Keep more!
Make more!
Live more!
Now listen to what those words became.
A $380 million Ponzi scheme,
And thousands left carrying the pain.
The yacht can leave the harbour,
The private jet can fly,
You can put your name in stadium lights—
But the blockchain—no.
The bank records don't lie.
Follow the money.
Ignore the show.
Ask where the profits really grow.
Because wealth on Instagram
Doesn't prove a thing—
And guaranteed returns
Should make alarm bells ring.
[Outro]
Keep more.
Make more.
Live more.
That was the slogan.
Twenty years.
That's the sentence.
And somewhere in Orlando
Another man is waiting...
Christopher Delgado.
October twenty-first.
How much time
Do you do
When hundreds of millions disappear?
The Avengers Anti-Fraud Alliance is a community supporting independent investigations into scams, Ponzi schemes, MLMs, crypto fraud and the people behind them.
Led by New Zealand investigative journalist Danny de Hek, the Avengers help uncover information, connect victims, analyse evidence and expose schemes that deserve public scrutiny.
We investigate. We expose. We protect.
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DANNY DE HEK
DANNY DE HEK