Money Crypt

Radio Télévision Suisse

Postproduction script

00:00:03,920 VO: -Zurich, October 3rd. When some people are heading to the office or to school, 10,000 young people gathered for a meeting at the Hallenstadion. They have come from all over the world, all are students from an online trading school: IM Master Academy. Journalists are not allowed to enter, but we had access to the company's footage. These young people are not yet 30 years old, but they say they earn 10,000 dollars per month, thanks to cryptocurrencies.

00:00:38,060 Man on video: I can tell you everything is possible because **

00:00:52,481 VO: -The school has invested a lot of money to recruit new students in Switzerland. But behind the promises of success lies a company with dubious methods.

1’08 Title: Money Crypt

00:01:15,020 VO: In the north of Spain, we have found a former member of the academy. He wishes to remain anonymous. We will call him Luis; he is 23 years old.

00:01:27,020 Woman in video: You are part of IM Academy and more importantly IM Academy is part of you.

00:01:31,907 Luis: -What is being said here is very interesting: "You are part of IM and IM is part of you!" These words sound hollow, but they are not. They use them to manipulate us and make us believe that we are one with the academy.

00:01:47,329 VO: -Two years ago, Luis was a finance student with a passion for cryptocurrencies. One day, he was approached by one of the academy's students on social media.

00:01:56,609 Luis: -I wanted to learn to be a trader, but they made me change my path. They turned my brain around and said that if I wanted to learn how to invest money, I had to create my own wealth first. For that, I first had to recruit other students and they would pay me a commission which I could then invest.

00:02:14,788 VO: -Luis discovered the company's pedagogy.

00:02:19,391 Luis: -One of their methods when you sign up, is to make us write our financial and emotional goals. For some people, it was about helping their families. As soon as you want to leave, they say: "Have you thought about your parents? What at first seemed to be a financial training quickly turned out to be a cult.

00:02:40,811 VO: -Luis is far from being an isolated case. Thousands of young Spaniards are lured by the promise to get rich quick. An enticing prospect, in a country where 83% of under 25 years old earn less than 1,000 euros per month. In recent years, cryptocurrencies have attracted more and more young people without any knowledge in the field. Some real-fake academies have smelled the lead. When families realize the scam, it is often too late. For a few weeks now, Maria Del Mar has been waiting by her phone for rare messages from her 18 year old son.

00:03:25,904 Son on phone: -Hi Mom, everything's fine.

00:03:27,869 Maria on phone: -My darling, give me some news. I would like to know what you are doing. You've already spent so much money on this thing.

00:03:37,011 Maria: He asks me to send him money as soon as possible. I know that he is in Barcelona sharing a house with other people. He is hungry and needs money to buy food.

00:03:46,754 VO: -Maria Del Mar agreed to testify on condition she would not be identified so as not to break her connection to her son. The young man was recruited in a park after school.

00:03:58,399 Maria: -He told me that he had finally found his way, that this was the future, but that I couldn't understand anything about it. He offered to introduce me to one of his managers to explain to me what the training was about. They came to my house. I lasted for 15 minutes, then I locked myself in my room. He was the archetypal manipulator.

00:04:29,316 VO: -Her son and several followers stayed at her house for three days trying to convince her, in vain.

00:04:37,639 Maria: -He has distanced himself, he doesn't answer my calls anymore. We learned that that he no longer goes to class.

00:04:48,953 VO: -As a single mother, Maria Del Mar is distraught.

00:04:54,810 Maria: -I feel lonely, desperate. I want my son back. In the beginning, I asked the police for help. I was even ready to press charges against my son so they would go and get him. The police told me that they would not open an investigation, that nothing was illegal and that they couldn't take my complaint.

00:05:23,570 VO: -In Spain, thousands of families have contacted the police. In April, the unit for the fight against economic delinquency arrested 8 Spanish officials of the academy. The case is in progress. Only this police officer is authorized to tell us about it.

00:05:40,794 Carlos Morales: -This is a phenomenon in full expansion. They prey on younger and younger vulnerable people, even minors. This is very worrying.

5’51 Carlos Morales, Spokesperson, SUP Union

00:06:03,639 VO: -We have contacted the representatives of the academy in Madrid. We went to the address mentioned in the in the commercial register, but these offices are those of a domiciliary company. IM did not respond to our interview request. If we are to believe the testimony of former followers like Luis, the academy works like a pyramid scheme.

00:06:31,423 Luis: -This is me when I started. To get to the next rank, I had to recruit 3 people. Then these three people have to recruit 3 more each. Once 30 people have been recruited, we earn 1,000 euros per month.

00:06:54,770 VO: -For a year, Luis spent his days recruiting. His nights were punctuated by the cult. He had to go to sleep to the sound podcasts prepared by the academy.

00:07:05,949 Podcast: -"You will become a new person and a new leader."

00:07:09,883 Luis: -These podcasts are not about cryptocurrencies. They are about our state of mind, how to achieve success. The podcasts push us to adopt the mindset of a financial shark.

00:07:26,988 VO: -Little by little, Luis began distancing himself from his family and friends.

00:07:32,520 Luis: -They keep telling you that they are the only solution for you, that they have the truth, not like your parents who have been fooled all their lives. What is this truth? Studying at the university or working is useless. To be successful in life, there is a trick that only they know about and that they can reveal to you. It undermined my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. She was a brilliant student, but I was denigrating her good grades.

00:07:59,265 VO: -But doubt began creeping in.

00:08:02,410 Luis: -I wondered if I was myself, who I had become in recent months.

00:08:10,093 VO: -In Madrid, the investigation becomes more intense. Maria Del Mar has decided to take action.

00:08:18,819 Maria: -I am a desperate mother. I am ready to do anything to save my son. I want to stop them I want to put obstacles in their way so that they can't recruit anyone anymore.

00:08:27,428 VO: -She joined an association to fight against sects.

00:08:32,549 Maria: -Hello, how are you?

00:08:35,874 VO: -This morning, she has an appointment with the president...

00:08:39,604 Marta: -Hello, beautiful.

Maria: -Hello.

00:08:42,947 VO: ...and Marta, whose daughter is a member of the academy. Objective of the meeting: To prevent the next gathering.

00:08:51,871 Maria: -What are we doing for Rotterdam?

00:08:54,336 Marta: -Here is the promotional video they have just published.

00:08:59,672 Maria: -We have to act now.

00:09:02,301 VO: -In March, 15,000 young people from all over the world are expected in the Netherlands.

00:09:11,109 Marta: -It looks like a rock concert.

00:09:13,774 Maria: -It's outrageous: 229 euros entrance fee, and that's without the plane, the hotel, the meals.

00:09:23,539 VO: -Marta knows that she will not be able to keep her 16 year old daughter from going to Rotterdam.

00:09:28,778 Marta: -If I forbid her, she will run away. She has left our house, because her father and I didn't want to pay for that school anymore. She worked in a night bar, and lived in an apartment with other members of the cult, in awful conditions. When she came back, she had fleas, scabies and she was hungry.

00:09:55,222 VO: -Thanks to the stubbornness of Marta, Maria del Mar and Juantxo, a meeting was cancelled in Dubai in July.

00:10:03,509 Maria: -We contacted the Emirates consulate in Spain, the Emir and the stadium where they were supposed to organize the event. With the Emirates cancellation, they lost a lot of money. This boycott gave us an incredible strength.

00:10:21,727 VO: -They had also tried to get the Zurich event cancelled, without success. They have three months left before Rotterdam. At the same time, the association filed a complaint against the academy.

00:10:35,797 Maria: -I'm here to see Mr. Bardavio. Hello, thank you for seeing me.

00:10:46,710 VO: -Carlos Bardavio is a Spanish specialist on sectarian movements.

00:10:53,189 Maria: -I come from the association and families of followers to know if you have news about the investigation.

00:11:02,101 Carlos Bardavio: -They were arrested for allegedly committing of false advertising, swindling, criminal conspiracy, mental manipulation and threats. We're going to end up with a trial, but it's going to take years.

00:11:16,096 Maria: -How did they manage to change my son in such a short time? I don't know where he is.

00:11:23,138 Carlos Bardavio: -In this kind of business, people stay 6-8 months in the sect until they discover the truth.

11’27 Carlos Bardavio, Lawyer

00:11:32,931 VO: -But for others, the path is longer. After a year of indoctrination, Luis has regained his freedom.

00:11:51,771 Luis: -I went on a spiritual retreat. I spent 3 days without receiving any emotional stimulus from the cult and I said to myself: "I don't want this life."

00:12:05,804 VO: -Still, feelings of guilt remain strong as Luis participated in the recruitment of 500 people.

00:12:12,348 Luis: -I brought in one of my best friends. When I left, he stayed another year and a half. When I left, I announced it to my team and a lot of the people I had recruited left with me, but not all of them.

00:12:26,716 VO: -Luis has resumed his studies in finance, at the university. Maria Del Mar's son has come home, after three months of absence, but in a poor condition.

00:12:44,205 Maria: -He didn't leave out of conviction, but because he had no choice. He came back, because he was very sick. The doctor put him on antibiotics. He only slept and ate for some time. He gained 20 pounds. He has started his life again, but we are still very concerned. We don't know if he's completely out of it. We can't talk about it with him.

00:13:17,966 VO: -Maria Del Mar plans to continue her fight against the academy. Over the past 5 years, its leaders claim to have recruited 200,000 young people all over the world.

13’31 Credits:

Marie Bolinches
Romain Ripoteau
Fred Demilliac
Benoît Mayer