Byron Dittberner, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Solutions Specialist, Microsoft PowerApps Developer, Microsoft Certified Trainer (wonderful credentials for a scammer), AND creator of the Microsoft Portal for the Ponzi Scheme BTC Global and the creator of the Freedom Global Ponzi. A man with a passion for creating “business solutions” that are an easy way to make money.

His LinkedIn profile is deceiving as he has omitted his achievements in the development of Scam portals between 2016 and 2018. During this time he did very little else other than participate in and develop scams which he has termed “Network Marketing” on his profile. 

He was introduced to MMM, his debut in the world of Donation Exchanges/Gifting Schemes back in 2015. He successfully built a very large team and became a 1K Guider. It was during his time in Syntek, ProTravl Plus and then MMM which saw his introduction to Cheri Ward, Clynton Marks, and Andrew Caw something that would go on to make him partly responsible for the sudden growth of BTC Global. 

Let’s start at the beginning, as the “Network Marketing” leaders here in South Africa are inextricably linked.

Byron Dittberner ran his business as a Franchise holder for the Unlimited (door-to-door and promotional sales of Funeral Cover) for some years before closing it down. Subsequently, he became involved in network marketing starting off in Syntek selling a fuel additive. He progressed into ProTravel Plus due to his connection with Clynton Marks, Cheri Ward Marks and Team on Fire set up by Cheri and Clynton. Team on Fire was created to market several networks at one time and held bi-weekly presentations to market their “businesses”. 

At one of the weekly meetings, Byron Dittberner connected with Werner Hattingh, a serial participant in many schemes, and joined MMM, which went on to become one of the biggest Donation Exchanges/Gifting Schemes to hit South African shores. Byron dedicated his time to attending the Guiders course to properly learn the ropes of the scheme and went on to present the Guiders courses himself. He travelled South Africa and neighbouring countries giving presentations. He had vast experience in public presenting having worked on Stands at shopping malls selling various gadgets. His MMM presentation played on his “hard life” story, exactly what is needed to get people to buy into a “Get Rich Quick” scheme.

MMM went into a restart in April of 2016. Byron found himself banished from MMM by the Manager of the South African leg of the business and his income dried up. He was, by that stage, making hundreds of thousands of Rands on a weekly basis.

Byron Dittberner then went on to join, manage and market Freedom Global, having exhausted many schemes after the failure of MMM. He hopped from scam to scam recruiting along the way, GPX (Member/Support), Cashgang, Lara and Coinr, to name a few. Freedom Global, originally named Cash Cow, was rebranded Freedom Global by Byron. He designed the look and feel of the website and the marketing material. Having had a very large team in MMM, he took Freedom to 25000 plus members in a matter of a couple of weeks. His followers believed and trusted him thus recruiting was not difficult. Freedom Global grew internationally through the ex-MMM leaders in his team and those in his upline. Freedom took off with a bang but crashed within about a month.

The percentage return offered was unsustainable causing the system to stall.  He had no option but to then institute a restart, or what he termed a “Consolidation”. This was his supposed safety net so that those who had not made a profit would be left in the queue for payment and those who had recouped what they put in or who had made a profit would be removed from the queue. This plan, although good in theory, was not good in practice as he learned from the threats received from unhappy members.

Needless to say, Freedom died and once again Byron found himself without an income. Trading was the next thing on his agenda and he took deposits from people in his circle. He knew that doing this was illegal, but did it anyway. Unfortunately, he lost the money, or that is what he told everyone, however, he could not show any proof of trade. Being unable to answer the questions, he undertook to pay people back. In December of 2017, over a year later, he made payments to those he owed money to. He took a little of the bitcoin earned from BTC Global to do this. 

His next “project” was to start a legitimate business venture, Smartsure, an online Insurance network marketing company selling Funeral Cover. 

Byron began studying Microsoft Dynamics 365 as he created Smartsure. He employed a website developer for Smartsure at the time but later went on to try his hand at creating his own customer portal for Smartsure. It was very basic and incomplete as his knowledge at the time was limited.  With his reputation in Networking being IT savvy, he was approached by Clynton Marks and Russell Jerrard to develop a portal for BTC Global. He accepted the offer and launched into the creation of the BTC Global Microsoft portal casting Smartsure aside together with the members he had recruited into his business. His excuse, it seemed, had something to do with the failure of members to pay their monthly insurance cover premiums and his dire need for some income. His dedication to building the Portal saw his dismissal from Moscon as a result of working until all hours of the morning on BTC Global. He finished the BTCG portal on the 22nd of August 2017. First, he transferred the data from the Excel spreadsheet being used to track investments, and once done, general member registrations started very early September 2017. By his own admission, he ensured the Admin would require his services to maintain the portal and thus he ensured ongoing revenue from the scam. He loaded a fake investment of around $7000 to render him a weekly payment at 14% for his services. He made the monthly hosting payments to Microsoft which were reimbursed by Clynton. He prepared the weekly payment spreadsheet which he then sent to Andrew Caw, who, upon receipt of the spreadsheet on a Monday morning, would then make payments due to the members into their wallets. 

Byron also commissioned, wrote the scripts for, and designed the promotional videos made for BTC Global and had them made by Fiver thus aiding with the marketing of the Scam, although denying he ever actively recruited anyone to join. Programmers don’t usually get involved in the marketing materials for websites/platforms. This man, however, was more involved than he cared to admit.

According to Byron’s “story”, around late November of 2017, he approached Steven suggesting he build a new portal that would better accommodate the growing number of investors as there seemed to be technical issues experienced on an ongoing basis and he foresaw many more. For this, he quoted “Steven” $250 000. This huge price was “accepted” without discussion and his payment for this non-rendered service was made to him weekly, as he loaded the amount due divided over 5 weeks into the payment schedule, to be paid along with member payments on Mondays. He received a total amount of around BTC17, approximately $212 000 (R2 954 000) payments over 4 months before the scheme collapsed for all his rendered and non-rendered services.  The question remains as to why he was not paid directly by Steven but rather with the weekly member payments, or was he simply stealing the money right out from under the noses of the rest of the Admin team? Why did he break up the amounts due to him into multiple small transactions using different wallet addresses so they would go unnoticed by Andrew Caw? The answer lies in the fact that without a doubt, Byron was being paid from incoming money and the “new portal” was nothing more than an elaborate plan for Byron to skim money out of BTC Global. He has no proof of any agreement with “Steven”. He simply helped himself to a $200 000 “bonus”, plus the rest, at the expense of the members!

Important to mention here that he employed the services of both his stepmother and half-brother as support operators. Both were in desperate need of funds and, under the circumstances, it is very likely he loaded additional payments to both these people whilst he added funds for himself. This little family support crew lined their pockets very nicely.

Byron understands the design and mathematics behind these scams very well. Being the IT man gave him unfettered access to the system to do as he pleased.

THE BULK OF THE MONEY IN THE TABLE ABOVE WAS FOR NO SERVICE AT ALL. SIMPLE WITHDRAWALS.

LOOKS PRETTY MUCH LIKE STRAIGHT THEFT!

YOU DECIDE….

As BTC Global began to fail a case to investigate the scam had been opened with the Serious Economic Offenses (SEO) sector of the Hawks. Panic set in as the Admin and IT of the platform realized that there was indeed trouble on the horizon. Byron Dittberner quickly decided that it would be better to turn on his cronies than face prosecution, and thus negotiated to turn State witness (Section 204 Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977) in the BTCG investigation. In doing this he submitted a full statement, never signed or commissioned, of who did what and how it worked. By his own admission, he never invested in the scheme as he knew it was a scam and, despite emails from one “Steven Twain”, things just did not add up. In his case, he never put money into the Ponzi because as the developer he knew it was a Ponzi, plain and simple.

Byron was handsomely paid for his Support services by Clynton, “Steven”, & Andrew, gaining performance bonuses from Madelyn Roose, Cheri Ward. and “Steven” himself! His weekly remuneration, however,  was paid by the members as he loaded fake investments into the portal to be paid his “salary” on a weekly basis. This money we know was not from Trade returns but from new investor money. The money “earned” was spent on living expenses, a luxury holiday to Zanzibar for 5 people, new cars, and his Microsoft studies to enable him to leave South Africa (who says crime doesn’t pay?).

During the course of January 2018, just as the problems in BTC Global became apparent, Byron was “approached” by David and Mike (surnames unknown) to build a portal for a Ponzi. He quoted on the job and was paid a 50% deposit to begin the work (transactions below). By his own admission, the work becomes profitable once there is an SLA in place which gives him access to the portal on an ongoing basis. As with BTC Global, this is where he was going to make his money. Apparently, the Investigator on the BTC Global case advised Byron that his immunity from prosecution would only be granted if he could unequivocally prove that he had not profited from BTC Global. This then brought about his decision to return the funds paid to him by Mike and David and not to proceed with the task of building them a portal. Whether this in fact happened is not clear as he provided no proof of outgoing transactions for the refund.

Whatever was left of his ill-gotten gains was set aside to finance his emigration to Perth Western Australia, where he currently resides and works for an IT company. He is also a Udemy Instructor.

An IT developer, well-schooled in Ponzi schemes, who undertakes the development of a portal/back office to facilitate an illegal business, is just as guilty as those who promoted it and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Byron Dittberner is a Con Man who not only duped the members of BTC Global but the Admin team too. The excuse “It was just a job” cannot be used to justify breaking the law and in Byron’s case, he was involved in the creation of marketing material – not part of a developer’s role.

Byron Dittberner –  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Ponzi Developer