Vitae
Summary
Vitae was a social-media rewards platform operated by Switzerland-registered Vitae AG, which issued the VITAE token and promised users income from content interactions through a multi-level affiliate structure. Belgian and Swiss authorities, coordinated by Europol, shut down the platform in June 2021, arresting five individuals and seizing over €2.6 million in cash and cryptocurrency across 17 raids, alleging the operation was a Ponzi and pyramid fraud that defrauded approximately 223,000 people in 177 countries. The platform's founder, Michael Weber, operated under the alias 'Michael Bradley' and had prior involvement in the BitConnect Ponzi scheme; he remained at large in the United States as of last known reporting.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 6 more
Timeline(16 events)
2014-06-01
Michael Weber launches X100K, a matrix pyramid scheme, marking his first documented MLM fraud operation.
BehindMLM X100K Review2016-01-01
X100K collapses after multiple restarts and is abandoned by Weber.
BehindMLM Vitae Ponzi scheme shut down by Belgian authorities2016-06-01
Weber launches PIF2Cash, a Ponzi cycler framed as a reboot of X100K.
BehindMLM PIF2Cash Review2018-01-16
BitConnect, in which Weber was a top earner, collapses. Weber subsequently loses his prior scheme income stream.
BehindMLM Vitae Ponzi scheme shut down by Belgian authorities2018-03-01
Vitae Coin (later renamed Vitae Token) launches, marketed as a PIVX-fork social rewards platform, within months of BitConnect's collapse.
BehindMLM Vitae Ponzi scheme shut down by Belgian authorities2019-12-01
A Belgian individual identified in Swiss reporting as 'Z.' becomes a board member of Vitae AG in Zug, serving as European-facing promoter via Zoom and Telegram.
Watson.ch — Cyberbetrug: Spur führt in den Kanton Zug2020-06-19
Vietnam's Department of Competition and Consumer Protection issues a fraud warning against Vitae, identifying signs of pyramid investment. Vitae's Discord operations are shut down the same month.
BehindMLM — Crowd1, OneLink & Vitae fraud warnings issued in Vietnam2020-08-01
Vitae Rain Chat revshare scheme launches, adding a $14.99/month membership with ad-credit positions paying returns funded by new participants.
BehindMLM — Vitae Rain Chat Review2021-06-19
Michael Weber's last documented social media activity (a retweet) before disappearing from public view.
BehindMLM — Two arrested Vitae executives named, Michael Weber MIA2021-06-22
Belgian judiciary orders seizure of vitae.co and vitaetoken.io domains under magistrate Philippe Van Linthout. Cash (€1.1M), cryptocurrency (€1.5M), 17 luxury vehicles, watches, and gold are seized.
Europol — Europol helps Belgian and Swiss authorities unravel Vitae Ponzi scheme2021-06-24
Belgian Federal Judicial Police, coordinated by Europol and Swiss Fedpol, raid 17 locations and arrest five individuals including Vitae CCO Mendy Zicherman and COO Shrage Posen. Charges include criminal organization membership, fraud, and money laundering.
Europol — Europol helps Belgian and Swiss authorities unravel Vitae Ponzi scheme2021-10-01
Vitae operators, via wearevitae.org, begin soliciting donations from users toward a legal defense fund, framing contributions as a path to recovering frozen assets.
BehindMLM — Vitae begging victims for legal defense fund money2022-01-01
Vitae AG entity, formerly registered at a Zug law office, is relocated to the Canton of Zurich according to Swiss reporting.
Watson.ch — Cyberbetrug: Spur führt in den Kanton Zug2023-06-15
Non-profit 'Justice for the Vitae Members' (JuViMe VZW) statutes published in the Belgian Official Gazette, formalizing the victims' collective legal action.
De Groote De Man law firm — We help the victims of the Vitae fraudDecision Log
- hash: EFW7cddQnTq86SRjHCJ97RjsNytVxGAbLw9UTzKv5y2o
- hash: 9dWfMM5X8VXSqtkEiKEywRoEXfZ9ZFqXSiFQqmvjSfpe
- hash: 7iHEBeijS1EWSTbMHChWxFWnkUGM1gs8goMqkSmoTpaf
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/31/2026, 8:20:39 PM
last updated: 6/1/2026, 3:22:02 AM
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