Illusions for Sale: The Rise and Fall of Generation Zoe (2024) Movie Script

I was at the entrance.
Do you have these mirrors they handed out?
I'm going to ask you all,
to please take them out of your pockets.
And hold them in your hands.
I'll ask you
to do as I did so long ago.
And look yourself in the eyes
for the first time!
Look at your eyes.
Look at them straight.
Put it right in front of your eyes. There.
Because I think
you have forgotten about yourselves.
Keep looking in the mirror.
Because I'll read to you
what I once told myself.
Do you all have your mirrors?
If you don't,
close your eyes and picture a mirror.
Every morning, when I wake up feeling sad,
I look in the mirror,
and I know my heart is big
and full of love.
Full of courage to carry on.
What I want is for you
to give yourself one last chance.
Staying still is easy.
So is staying in the past.
LEONARDO COSITORTO
PRESIDENNow I invite you to make one last choice
and dare to get on your chair!
Yes, get on your chair!
Stand on your chair!
And make this final choice!
Because human beings,
gentlemen, are born to be free!
They're born to become humans!
That is your only opportunity!
Interpol has ordered
the arrest of Leonardo Cositorto,
CEO of the Generacin Zoe organization.
It's a Ponzi scheme, a scam.
HOW WILL GENERACIN ZOE WORK?
Your commission increased
according to the number of friends
you could convince.
How many people
are freer today than before?
Cositorto directed and promoted
an association
to commit an unknown number of crimes.
The so-called business,
Generacin Zoe, produces nothing.
Their activities are accumulating money,
giving back some, and keeping the rest.
GENERACIN ZOE WILL HAVE NEW CEO
Who can offer
a 7.5% monthly profitability in dollars?
RUMORS OF SCAMS IN GENERACIN ZOE
BEFORE THE ACCUSATIONS
Who bought a new house
or a new car this year?
- Me!
- Me!
The scandal around Generacin Zoe
is growing internationally.
It's not just Colombia, it's in Peru,
Ecuador, in the United States.
Guatemala, Mexico.
Spain, Italy, Germany.
How many of us are happier?
What lies behind
this cryptocurrency preacher?
Is there anything?
DEFIANT FUGITIVE
My goal was to create a Zoe life,
which is a choice.
We don't have to live in the world
as it stands.
Of course,
it's completely divergent, disruptive,
and different to the world provided
by the traditional political system
that puts you under a roof,
stuffs you into a box,
gives you a salary,
and you earn what the market allows.
In Zoe, on the other hand,
you earn depending on your efforts.
Are you following, leaders?
We've escaped
the slaving paradigm of culture
and entered the paradigm of fortune.
ILLUSIONS FOR SALE:
THE RISE AND FALL OF GENERATION ZOE
Villa Mara is a city
that has almost everything.
We just need a mall.
It's like a big town.
Absolutely. I meet someone
and we both surely know the same people.
There's high purchasing power,
and many people
have undeclared income sources.
It's a city where people can grow
if they're willing to.
Like the Humid Pampas,
Villa Mara lives off its rural areas.
Twenty-four percent of the national
milk production is processed here.
It has also become
the number one dairy region
over Sunchales and Rafaela.
There's a lot of industry
adding value to what the fields produce.
And this shows the economic power
residing in Villa Mara
and its surroundings.
Leonardo Cositorto
knew perfectly what Villa Mara was.
Otherwise,
why would you go to Villa Mara?
BELN
VICTIM OF GENERACIN ZOE
My name is Beln. I was born in the city.
I own a wholesale clothing and shoe store.
I've spent the last seven years on that.
I have two children.
Maybe because of the life I led,
it felt very flat, plain,
just more of the same.
I felt I was missing something.
I felt I had more left to discover.
I began studying coaching in 2019.
SEARCH WITH GOOGLE
I saw an opportunity for personal growth.
It made me want to,
I don't know, dream again.
Ontological coaching allows us
to communicate with the other person
and it involves everything,
communication, active listening.
And it's not just about
transmitting information,
it's about being able
to receive it as well.
My teachers were Claudio lvarez
and Silvia, his mother.
And if we all work as a team,
we'll be able to achieve
those extraordinary results.
We went to Silvia's home.
There were ten of us.
Fifteen, tops.
It took me a long time
to believe in myself.
And know that I can...
For me, coaching marked
a before and after in my life.
...to change things.
They taught us how to see things
from another point of view.
How to think differently.
It was always about personal change,
about empowering yourself.
Never about the financial side.
Through all this information
I acquired through experience...
By the time I finished the course
and graduated,
Generacin Zoe was already
making a foothold in the city.
Hello, team, how are you?
Hi to all Cordobeses and everyone else.
FOUNDER OF GENERACIN ZOE
Don't miss the opening today,
at 5:00 p.m., of one of the offices
that will make history in Argentina
and Latin America. The key is opportunity.
Zoe.
This is the reception area.
Today, we're opening here, in Villa Mara.
Here are our traders.
These are our offices.
Here are the cashiers, so to speak.
Plenty of work.
And we already have our space...
SILVIA FERMANI
GENERACIN ZOE LEADER
...today is the opening.
Have you gone around the office?
Have you seen everything?
Do you know when to collect your paycheck?
How do you do it?
CLAUDIO LVAREZ
GENERACIN ZOE LEADER
I saw their change in lifestyle
over social media.
Suddenly, they started owning
higher-quality goods.
Houses.
Trips.
Cars.
- How are you, Claudio?
- Good.
I'm living one of my dreams.
I always used to say...
I said it to my mom, my kids,
my whole family,
"One day, I'll own this car."
And it was the wallpaper
on my PC for years.
But I never expected
to enjoy this blessing at my age.
We're living it
thanks to Leo, the team, and Zoe.
I'm thankful.
So, what did you have three years ago?
A Xerox machine?
Yes, a Xerox machine.
So I asked Claudio
what this was all about.
And that's when he told me.
He invited me to a business presentation.
I attended, and, well...
To tell you what Zoe is all about,
I first I have to tell you
about the essence of Zoe.
It starts with a vision of education,
a part of coaching.
However, we understood
that preparation was not enough.
If we couldn't afford
our electricity bill,
our water bill, our kids' school,
or even just getting sick,
we'd go bankrupt.
That's when this tool was created,
which gives people
the chance to receive profit.
And that's when they told me
that with an educational membership,
you'd get paid while studying coaching.
EDUCATIONAL
PLATFORM
GENERATE
INCOME
Our memberships had four pillars.
Number one
was always the preparation of leaders.
Then, we came up with the referral plan,
and with every newcomer,
people would receive royalties and profit.
And another leg
was tourism.
With a one-time-only investment of $1,600,
we'd take you on trips
at least twice over the next two years.
Then there was the fourth pillar,
which was the investment area
with 7.5% yields
in the currency
in which the person invested.
That was the money given back,
which I determined was enough
for the business
to sustain itself and grow.
I told my husband,
checked how much money I had in the house,
and he told me, "Yes, absolutely,"
because we were both looking
for a chance to grow.
I reached the amount and deposited it.
Hi, how are you?
This is Leonardo Cositorto.
I wanted to tell you
that for the last 27 years
I've been working
in networking, sales, and businesses.
And during those 27 years,
I've boarded more than a thousand planes.
A thousand planes that cost me,
just in the tickets,
around $500,000, maybe more.
I make a living as a coach.
I'm a professional ontological coach.
And we create leaders
all over Latin America.
Traveling through Latin America.
Bringing possibilities.
Bringing everything, from the word of God
to a business opportunity.
The rumor around
the Santa Marta convention was,
RAQUEL
GENERACIN ZOE VICTIM
"He's a master coach, well-known
in Argentina on ontological topics."
"He has experience as a businessman."
Mr. Leonardo Cositorto!
I'd never heard about
Leonardo Cositorto before.
When he got on the stage,
the applause was deafening.
And the cheering and yelling
just wouldn't stop.
He called our attention.
But what I see is a perception.
An interpretation of an illusion.
But my ego makes me believe
that what I see is reality.
He had a good sense for people.
As the Bible says,
"For now we see in a mirror."
Because what is it that you see? Yourself.
He made sense.
Say it with me. "Ontological coaching
is not just about information."
"It is a winning paradigm."
THE 21 INSIGHTS
When the talk was over,
they started offering
educational packages.
ALL CAREERS AND INSIGHTS ARE FREE
THE KEY TO SUCCESS
What did they cover? Neurolinguistics.
Ontology.
Finance.
I thought about it
because liking and buying,
were completely different things.
I wasn't sure about buying.
However, when I returned from lunch
and went back to the activity,
I opened my wallet
and found that my money was gone.
Mentally, we will be sharing...
I told the lead coach what had happened.
And he said, "Okay, the stolen money
will be counted as part of the payment,
and you can pay off
the remaining amount next week."
I thought it was a gesture
of solidarity, of support.
I thought, "Okay,
what if I buy it? What if I pay the rest?"
"What's the difference?"
"I'll study, and if I receive any revenue,
it'll be interesting for me."
Add to that
the hypnotic oration
that he had.
It just surrounded me.
It's like he studied
and observed people's minds
and knew what they wanted to hear.
When I decided to pay
for the rest of the educational package,
I became a member
of the Zoe group school.
COACHING UNIVERSITY
ARGENTINA
MARCH 3RD, 2020
First confirmed case of coronavirus.
First positive case of coronavirus.
A 46-year-old man in Italy.
He was asymptomatic.
MARCH 20, 2020
Beginning at midnight,
you must submit to preventative
and mandatory social isolation.
No one may move from their residence.
Everyone must stay home.
Hi, during quarantine,
I found these new friends
who were always home
without me realizing it.
I'll introduce you.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, Maxi.
My name is Maximiliano Batista.
I'm 43 years old.
I started working at 11 years old
in grocery stores and shopping centers.
At 14, I worked at a funeral home.
At 18, while looking for a job,
MAXIMILIANO BATISTA
GENERACIN ZOE VICE PRESIDENI met Leonardo,
who had a direct selling company.
He had a Toyota Country. Amazing car.
The best suits, Hugo Boss suits.
While I was buying clothes
at a thrift shop.
And you could see
how people admired him
and applauded him while he gave talks.
I thought, "He's amazing.
I want to be like him."
In the morning, you go to the bathroom,
look in the mirror, and go, "Woah!"
"I'm so handsome." Come on, everyone.
"I'm so handsome."
"My body is amazing."
Then you should kiss yourself a bit.
So, I started working for his company.
I remember he asked me,
"What do you need?"
I said, "I need a stereo and a fridge."
And he said, "If you make manager,
I'll give you the fridge and the stereo."
Of course, I supported Maxi Batista.
I gave him a hand so he could grow,
the rest was his own efforts.
And I remember that I worked hard.
I became manager
in four and a half months.
But you know how life is.
I worked there for seven or eight months.
After eight months,
I had a disagreement with him.
I split from the company
and went my own way.
Training challenge for today.
First...
Until the pandemic hit,
I was doing all right.
I had four cars working as taxis.
I had a cosmetics company.
I'd bought my apartment.
When the pandemic hit, things changed.
The salespeople I had going door to door
were all left.
CLOSING, 80 DAYS SHUT DOWN
IMPOSSIBLE TO SUSTAIN
I stood outside with a table,
stopping people passing by,
selling perfume, creams,
and hand sanitizer.
At that point, Leo was living
a block away from my office.
We'd started getting in touch.
LEO ONLINE
I HAVE A PROJECT TO SHOW YOU
IT'S CALLED GENERACIN ZOE
That's when Leo came in and said,
"Max, I need a coach to give some talks."
I said, "No problem."
Hi, how are you? I'm giving out
ten educational scholarships...
We live in Argentina,
wealthy but mentally impoverished.
I'll talk about the three A's.
The three A's are fundamental
for success or control over your life.
He paid me for the talks that I gave.
I was just a coach like any other.
We'll tell you what Zoe is about.
Leo's goal is to train a million people
so they can live off
this career as coaches.
Have a good night
in all countries in Latin America.
An excellent audience of 326 people,
connected, I imagine,
from all over the world.
Welcome to the madness of neuromarketing.
Welcome. It's a pleasure to have you here.
I missed teaching you.
During the pandemic,
the information became widespread,
and that increased
the number of attendants.
The main goal is to democratize education.
That means that any person can have access
to result-focused education.
Why do some people
achieve greater things than others?
My thanks to all the assistants.
The number of participants
just keeps increasing.
PARTICIPANTS
Because we love what we do,
and we're going for more.
During the pandemic, people were at home
and looking for remote work,
looking to study.
They needed some economic outlet.
They were bored.
That context helped us
grow a bit faster than we expected.
Leo is here too. Leo's online.
Let's open the room.
We opened the room,
and 720 people were online, waiting.
Yeah, amazing.
Let me tell you, Claudio, right now
I'm in Mexico, and I landed in Cancn.
Look at all the people waiting for you.
Ready for the flight.
I'm ready to head to Cartagena.
Zoe!
Guys, this is the life...
- Zoe!
- Zoe!
From Brazil, this is Zoe!
Your life will change
Zoe!
Medelln, here!
I'm thankful to Zoe and Leo Cositorto
for allowing me to meet people.
Learning from everyone
is an incredible experience.
A great night in Arequipa
with a full theater.
Tomorrow will be a bang.
People are delighted, thankful.
I was hospitalized
and escaped two hospitals.
So don't talk to me about the pandemic.
I've seen it from the inside.
I think I was the first one isolated.
Maybe it's COVID, or I'm just crazy.
I'm serious. I escaped from two hospitals.
Roughly in November 2020,
Leo told me,
"Max, I need more of your time."
"I need you to travel with me
so we can pair up."
REACH THE PEAK OF SUCCESS
I thought, "Maybe I'll do these talks
and continue touching people's lives."
You are the one who can bless,
the one who can work miracles.
You have that power.
And if you do it, as an employer...
I loved stepping onto the stage,
giving a talk,
and watching people transform.
I'd finish the talk,
and people would come up and say,
"Max, you changed my life."
"I used to stay in bed all day,
couldn't get up."
"And I got up to come to your talks."
I'm Mirian, I was born in Buenos Aires.
I'm married with three kids.
I'm a healthcare professional
and hemodialysis technician.
I was told about Zoe by someone I trusted.
MIRIAN
VICTIM OF GENERACIN ZOE
They said, "I've got something for you
that you'll love."
"It'll change your life."
"I've been involved for a while
and I think this is right for you."
They explained that it was something real
that had a 7.5% monthly yield.
You didn't have to do anything,
just that first investment.
It was putting your money to work for you.
And I thought, "I love that."
That's how it went.
I didn't know anything about Zoe.
Not even the logo, who was the CEO,
who owned it, who created it.
I signed in with my first membership.
SIGN IN WITH YOUR USERNAME TO ACCESS
THE ADMINISTRATION PANEL
That's when the page opened up,
and my name and photo were there.
You could also see the virtual office,
which was called the back office.
Right there in your cell phone,
you could see in this beautiful cloud
how, little by little,
your money would increase,
and that made you happy.
It was like...
You'd go, "Woah, I've got all this,
I can't believe it."
So you wanted to talk about it
and share it because it's infectious.
Just imagine, "What are you doing?"
"See?" "What are you up to right now?"
I saw that this could be the path
to accomplish my dream,
to financial freedom,
to economic independence.
I started having more time
for myself, my house, and my kids.
You saw this beautiful world and went,
"This is what's coming, the new thing."
I wanted to be part of this new wave
because I thought it was interesting.
Very exciting.
By the time you realized,
it was all you could think about.
You went to bed thinking of Zoe
and got up thinking of Zoe.
I don't remember the date,
but I was invited
to a convention in Carlos Paz.
I think they filled ten hotels.
The minimum investment was $400,
but if you reached 1,000,
you got access to this convention,
and your hotel
would be paid for, your food,
and the ticket to the theater
where they gave the talks.
ONTOLOGICAL COACH
There, in Carlos Paz,
I met Cositorto, Max Batista,
and the leaders from other provinces.
It was time for something
to show up in the world
that breaks away from culture and routine.
And that has already shown up,
and it's called Generacin Zoe.
When we started chatting with people,
everyone more or less agreed.
Dreaming again, chasing your dreams.
"Hey, what do you want?"
"I got into Zoe
because I don't own my home," like me.
You listened to people,
and from the millionaires
to the broke newcomers,
we were all together.
The speakers were already in the business,
talking about how much they'd invested.
When and how much they'd achieved to date.
Because as an actor,
I barely made $700 a month.
And today, I'm making
over $15,000 a month in Zoe.
- He's donating $1,000.
- I'm so thankful.
We'll add it, make it 1,500. There we go.
He's taking $1,500.
COSITORTOLAND
It's a boy!
He has the same name as my son.
Santiago.
- Where is Santiago?
- Back there.
There were stand-up comics
and dancing troupes.
And I remember Max getting on stage,
Max Batista, and starting dancing.
And he suddenly took off his shirt
and started doing this really sexy dance.
Cositorto was watching him from a balcony,
just enthralled.
It was just like being in Disneyland.
I've never been there, but...
What I've seen is like
a fantastic theme park.
A life full of luxuries
was all you could achieve with Zoe's help.
And I told my husband,
"I'll speak with Claudio.
I want to work at their offices."
"How will you handle that
and the shop?" he said.
"No matter.
I'll speak with Claudio because,
with the investment I've made so far,
it'll take much longer
to achieve what I want."
I was already inside,
but I wanted a bit more.
Because regular people would walk up to us
and tell us about their dreams.
"I'm investing my life savings,
and I'm doing it here
because I know it'll pay more,
and I'll be able to let my folks retire."
"Because I'll be able to provide
a better life for my kids."
That's when it clicked,
and I said, "Okay."
"This is the door to a magical world,
this is how we get in."
It made me desire everything,
particularly being inside, you know?
Living what they were living.
GENERACIN ZOE
WE UNITE LIVES AND DREAMS
My name is Nahuel Bargaz.
I'm 32 years old.
I used to work in the automotive market.
I mean, I worked at an oil shop.
I had my own garage.
A friend showed me what investments were.
NAHUEL BARGAZ
GENERACIN ZOE TRADER
The world of cryptocurrency,
which I didn't understand at first.
But I began to learn,
and that's when I rediscovered
my love for learning in the trading world.
Through word of mouth,
it spread through the city.
That there was some sort
of investment fund with traders.
You could learn while working for them.
And they were already interviewing
experienced traders.
BOALadies and gentlemen,
the keyword is opportunity.
Come closer.
You might be wondering what trading is.
Trading, my good audience,
is the art of buying low
and selling high in the short term
to obtain a profit.
It's as simple as that.
And what are we trading?
Well, there are five options.
Shares or bonds
traded on the stock market.
Currencies like the euro,
dollar, yen, pound,
in a market called Forex.
Famous cryptocurrencies
like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others.
Commodities, especially gold and silver,
among others.
And futures.
A contract between two parties
that commit to,
at some established future date
and specified price, exchange an asset.
Trading is an activity
where you can earn or lose money.
It requires training and dedication.
No one would dream of piloting a plane
with just a few internet tutorials.
Right?
The first interview was via Zoom.
They asked if I could go to their office
for the second interview.
I showed up, and they explained
their work methodology.
I said I liked it.
What kind of trader
wouldn't want to work managing capital
and doing what they like?
It's every trader's dream.
The place was harmonious.
The offices were well put together.
You could get there, boot up your PC,
talk to your coworker, and go,
"What pair are you analyzing today?
What are you looking at?"
Working at a place
where I can develop what I studied,
I can help people obtain capital,
I can expand my level of trading.
It all flowed from there.
The first thing they did with us
was put us through a test process.
They wanted to see
how well we could follow the instructions
of an expert trader.
Well, that expert was Rosa. Mara Rosa.
Hello, Maracaibo.
I'm Rosa Mara Gonzlez Rincn,
calling from Argentina.
I'm working for Zoe
designing three platforms
that are changing the way we transfer,
generate, and invest our money.
I also work as a professional trader
for the company.
With a team in Crdoba, Argentina,
we generated $125,000 in profit
just last week.
She had a clear knowledge of the business.
And she was admirable.
When I started working,
I did a bit of everything.
Then, I moved on to customer service,
welcoming the people that were there
to invest in the business.
Some people got to the office
already knowing how it all worked
because word of mouth spread.
WELCOME TO ZOE
ZOE PREMIUM - I'M NEW
You had to be brought in
by another person.
If I brought someone in,
I'd get a commission
for showing the business to someone else.
That person would bring another,
and they'd also receive a benefit
for getting them into the business.
Everyone in my network,
up to the eighth line,
in a perfect five matrix,
are around 400,000 people.
If my network has 1,000 people,
they each get their PIN,
and each PIN will pay me
$100 up to the eighth line.
How much do I earn immediately?
- A hundred thousand.
- What currency?
- Dollars.
- $100,000.
The people coming
from a low-to-middle-class background
reinvested the money we made.
Then there was another kind of people.
Business people.
Lawyers, bankers.
And that was a lot of money.
Some people would get paid $60,000.
I signed those receipts.
That's $60,000. He showed up
and walked away with that much.
Once, a man showed up
with cardboard boxes full of dollars
covered with a trash bag.
He walked into the office kicking boxes.
Like, "Where do I put this?"
"What do you have there?"
"It's the cash." "In that box?"
"Yeah, I've got the dollars."
There were $200,000 in those boxes.
It was amazing.
I had never seen so much money together.
TO "EL DIARIO"
ALWAYS WITH ITS WORKERS
September 2021.
The first thing
was an article in the local press,
including our newspaper,
El Diario del Centro del Pas,
about the arrival of a football team
that would take a spot
in the Villa Mara football league,
Deportivo Zoe.
SERGIO VAUDAGNOTTO
JOURNALIST "EL DIARIO"
A new team that made the news.
It was the first time this happened.
It came from the economic side of things
rather than the social.
A team with well-known
sports personalities...
A DIFFERENT FOOTBALL CLUB
WITH DISCIPLINE
...at a provincial and national level.
SPIRITUAL
COACHING
MENTAL
FORTITUDE
Based on that,
I wouldn't say I started looking into it,
but it struck me as odd.
And I started paying more attention.
When I saw
that the receptionist
at the clinic didn't work there anymore...
"Where did they go?"
"They're working with Zoe now."
When you go to the car dealership
to service your car,
and you find out that the salesperson
who had sold you your last car was gone...
And you start seeing cars with the logo...
Not just any cars.
Audi.
Cooper.
BMW, all with the Zoe logo.
I wondered, "What's going on?"
A similar situation
happening in Villa Mara comes to mind,
with a firm called Soluciones Diarias.
IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS
CLIENT SAYS HER PAYMENTS WERE NOT FOUND
The first thing I thought of
was inquiring with
the National Securities Commission
to see if this business, Generacin Zoe,
was registered as such.
And the Commission said no,
that they'd already sent them
a notice in October
to cease their economic activities.
EVERY DAY
EL DIARIO OF VILLA MARA
I felt a bit lonely
trying to figure out the catch,
so I published the first article.
I wrote it one night.
And while I wrote the article,
I didn't want it to happen again.
THE SECURITIES COMMISSION
DECLARED CESSATION FOR ZOE
We've just opened Aviva Zoe
in our offices two weeks ago,
we can't be surprised
about these kinds of attacks, right?
CLAUDIO LVAREZ
GENERACIN ZOE LEADER - VILLA MARA
Because it's likely they'll keep coming.
You know what? I just got a text
from our leader,
and it says,
"What? You thought
you'd take over the city,
take over the entire region
and get a standing ovation?"
"Don't be naive."
By November, Zoe Broker came online.
And they said we'd have the chance
to work with bigger capital.
We're talking about $50,000.
Hello, Zoe community.
We're here in the offices of Zoe Broker,
showing you a bit
of what our platform is all about.
This is our brain.
This is the license that makes us
an official international broker
and allows us to operate
on different financial markets.
We invested a huge amount of money
over several months.
A huge amount.
It cost us over $3 million
to obtain that broker,
and we started opening
50,000-dollar accounts.
One per trusted client or country.
Then, we opened 250,000-dollar accounts.
Then, we moved to the rest of the markets,
Forex, Futures, and synthetic indices.
We had 350 traders
working around the clock,
and during their trading, they made
between 1% and 2% daily.
That one or two percent daily
became a 25 to 40% monthly revenue.
Rosa Mara made 90%.
She managed to reach 97% profit
in one month, and she showed everyone.
PRESIDENT OF ZOE CORPORATION
We're happy. Rosa Mara
received an award just 17 days
after starting work on synthetic indices.
She's producing
extraordinary results every day.
We wanted to reward her today.
She's giving us an example
of humility, devotion, and discipline.
One person might be living on the street,
begging for money.
And the other is creating
their own income, like we do in Zoe.
You'd invest, have your back office,
and see your daily interest.
NORMA
GENERACIN ZOE VICTIM
Compound interest,
I didn't know what those were.
Reinvesting... There were a lot of things.
But it didn't click for me
because it was light on paperwork.
And that's when Yrimia came in,
who we knew was a former judge.
At the end of March 2021
the president of the company
showed up in my office
and asked me, "What do you see?"
"What must I do to comply
with the regulations in Argentina?"
DR. HCTOR YRIMIA
GENERACIN ZOE LEGAL ADVISOR
The goal today is to show
that our economic group
is a lawfully constituted company,
duly registered before
the General Inspectorate of Justice,
the assets regulated
by the Ministry of Justice,
we're a-- This is all regulated.
Today, every participant
is part of the trust.
They are no longer franchise,
but participants.
They don't receive interest.
They receive dividends.
But this man arrived
to assuage our doubts.
Yrimia told me, "Max, the trust
will make the company bulletproof."
"You'll have a $120 million insurance."
"If anything happens to the company,
you're bulletproof."
I'd like to sum it up
with a funny but real event.
A journalist once asked Kissinger,
"How come you have so much money?"
And they might someday ask us,
"How did Zoe make so much money?"
But Kissinger wouldn't answer
until he finally said,
"You have to make your first million."
Then, the follow-up question,
"How did you make your first million?"
He answered, "By any means."
"And then?" "Complying with the law."
He assured us,
publicly, that we could rest easy
because he, as the legal director,
was in charge of the legality
of all Zoe products.
The other day,
Maxi was right here with me,
and I told him,
"Maxi, we're going all in into Bitcoin."
Being next to Leo
meant talking about opportunity,
about growth, about what would happen.
When people came up to me and said,
"Hey, Maxi, I've got a business for you,"
I'd go, "Don't talk to me, talk to Leo.
He owns the company."
He took over all ideas and all projects.
Two people brought their dream
to the company,
and now they earn good money.
We want our puppies and kitties
to be in a good place.
Who has a dog or a cat?
The businesses, undoubtedly,
were what gave me
the most reassurance, without a doubt.
Hey, guys, I'm here with Leto...
Impressive.
We bought two Zoe Burger establishments,
approximately $60,000 each,
plus the refurbishing,
and on the other side, you had Zoe Car.
You saw that they had shares
in different companies.
The cars were there,
and so was the dealership.
ZOE CARS
Everything was growing, getting bigger.
And we were everywhere.
Because we are what we digest.
We are compact emotions,
and we are what we declare.
So we declared Zoe Natural,
and it has materialized today.
Thank you, Leo. Thank you, Maxi.
You wanna know something else, ladies?
A whole gallery...
For a full beauty center. Complete.
Surgeries for my colleagues.
Suddenly, they were all dressed up.
Or with a Mini Cooper.
Plus, we'll open our first kindergarten
and primary school
so our children
can get the education they deserve.
Bravo!
A school without any strikes!
What Leonardo Cositorto was generating
was an ecosystem,
a community of people within Zoe.
Those people went to the Zoe gym,
to the burger place.
If they wanted a car, they could buy it.
WHAT YOU MUST KNOW - CRYPTOCURRENCY
Zoe cash.
We're already at the Zoe market cap.
You can see that the currency
is at 0.20 cents of a dollar.
Our own cryptocurrency,
which we created after investing
more than $4 million.
And the publicity they showed
kept increasing.
They'd explore more countries.
People in Australia were interested,
in Great Britain, in Italy.
Leo, here are your planes.
And we opened up a Futswap in Sweden.
We opened our offices in Miami.
Leonardo had bought football teams
in Spain, Paraguay, and Thailand.
We were with Deportivo Espaol.
You should be a steel gate.
Score two goals or more, 2.4 million.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH
You'll take 100,000 pesos home.
Tomorrow or the day after,
we'll give you the wallet,
the crypto coin,
you'll have 55,000 extra pesos.
Keep it because the company
will safeguard it,
but if anyone wants to exchange it,
they can.
Do you know what things are made of?
- Raw materials, right?
- Yes!
What is the raw material
of something you can't see?
Faith! Faith makes up what you cannot see.
We've won this match before even playing!
We opened Zoe Paradise.
WE'RE CREATING PARADISE
When Zoe Paradise appeared,
I was in a group,
and Leonardo said,
"Each lot is worth this much."
You can't miss out.
Hi, how are you?
If you buy it in cash, it's 54,000.
You'll get three lots in the metaverse,
that's an investment.
You'll see everything being generated.
And you can choose quickly.
If that works, I'll put you in touch
with the payment team so you can choose.
You tell me, Leo.
Is it in cash or bank notes?
This is all a whirlwind for me,
but all right.
VOICE OF VICTIM
I'll listen to my heart and go ahead.
These are all my savings,
so I'll trust you and follow you.
Zoe Paradise
is an excellent investment, you'll see.
It was a business holding
where you saw it wasn't just Zoe
but many companies behind Zoe.
ZOE AIRLINE, ZOE WATER, ZOE CAR,
AVIVA ZOE, ZOE HEALTH, ZOE TRAVEL
We started seeing there was support,
there were businesses
that gave us solidity.
Well, we're on the way to the plane
headed to Dubai.
It's a 28-hour flight. Keep that in mind.
DUBAI
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The world is ruled by love,
so don't love money and use people
because you'll lose what you have.
The other way around, you'll multiply it.
Yrimia said that we had
to set up companies in Dubai
because their taxes are lower
than anywhere else in the world.
We're here to open a business.
Zoe Dubai, obviously.
We're also here to open Zoe Football.
We want to set up a clinic.
The lawyers, the accountant,
and Yrimia recommended
that he get a person he could trust.
When I signed on
as vice president of Generacin Zoe,
he said, during a conversation,
"Max, it's not a partnership."
"I need someone I can trust
who won't ask me for shares
or anything in the future."
We're in the house
of one of the owners of the Dubai banks.
With a private beach in his home.
And in Dubai,
it just felt like one more experience.
Look. Oh, I don't wanna look.
Look at this.
Look at where we're having dinner.
You'd see them
and enjoy it
because it was like you were there.
Among all animals,
leaders should choose to be camels.
They're the only ones carrying water
so that others may cross the desert.
When I told him in Dubai
that we should buy a gold mine,
Luis Yrimia told me
that was good business.
He brought in a person that he said
was the owner of Sol Petrleo,
they sold me a portion
of a gold mine in San Juan,
named Len, and another mine.
LEN MINE
And they said they could deliver
a certain amount of gold.
They priced it at around $500,000.
To us, at that time,
$500,000 was half a day
of resource generation.
The gold mines existed.
I visited the Court of Mines
to verify their existence.
I spoke to the judge,
and they were in working conditions.
Then, Cositorto drew up a contract
where he would make partial payments,
and the final installment would give
the license to explore the mine
to the Zoe company.
They laughed at us when we said
we'd back our coin with gold!
And I declare tonight.
We'll exchange Zoe Cash for gold!
One gram, one coin!
One gram, one coin!
GET YOUR FREEDOM
WITH ZOE CASH
The last thing we're doing here,
the cherry on top,
will be the acquisition of the mines.
We've got the first two,
and we'll also exploit another mine.
And even though we are not the owners,
we will be allowed extraction.
And pretty soon,
we'll have a film crew inside the mine
to show we're extracting
the first grams of gold.
Bravo!
Bravo!
Everything I'm saying is accurate.
You can see it, and you can touch it.
You can't buy a gold mine in Argentina...
JULIANA COMPANYS
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
...nor the space where gold is extracted.
Mines of raw metals, like gold,
are the property of the state.
These are concessions given through bids,
and the exploiter will take a percentage
while the state takes the rest.
Yrimia says, "I've got a Chinese investor
that will bring 100 million dollars
to the company to exploit the mine."
So that Zoe Cash
would get to all Chinese supermarkets
and people could pay with it.
Since I wasn't involved
in the business or anything...
Was it all a lie?
Only Yrimia knows that.
I wanted to tell you
that this Friday and Saturday,
I'll be in the ABC theater.
You can't miss it.
You and all your friends.
Coaching, mentoring, and the best business
in the world are in your hands. Bye.
COLOMBIA
NOVEMBER 2021
How is everyone?
- Hey.
- This night is just starting.
After this night,
no one will come out
the same as they entered.
So I want you to give a hand
to the person who can't stop shining
since he got here
because everyone loves him.
Max Batista. Maxi, get over here!
Good evening!
We grew 8,000% in 2021.
We were earning
40 or 50 million dollars a month.
So, I was handling
$1 million to $1.5 million per day.
First, I'd like to thank God
for putting me here in front of you.
Second, I'd like to thank Leo.
Here is another great inspirational leader
who has been very close to us.
- Founder of Zoe.
- Founder of Zoe.
And he's ready to...
inspire and charm you.
Again.
Welcome, Leo Cositorto!
The company
usually multiplied not by 8,000%,
but rather 400%,
and then, we were making around
two billion dollars.
Are any Colombians in the room?
Go Colombia!
It's not a unicorn. It's a double unicorn.
But we're speaking on a global scale.
Today, we have 64 offices
all over the world.
This month, we've transferred
over 20 million in profit
to the hands of all partners
and members of Zoe.
And today,
we're 58,000 people all over the world!
Look at what we're doing here!
We should go
to a stadium next time, right?
Yes!
In the following years,
we'll create social
and political movements
so that in the future, we could be leading
one, two, three, four, five,
or six countries in Latin America.
I'd like to make a closing statement.
A journalist
from Villa Mara
named Sergio
sent an e-mail
because he found that in Villa Mara...
SECURITIES COMMISSION
DECLARES CESSATION FOR ZOE
...people are leaving traditional jobs.
Secretaries, bankers,
they're leaving their old jobs
that made them 200, 300 dollars a month,
to do what?
To work for Zoe!
What's the problem?
I do not fear any man!
No man!
I'll only kneel before God!
Jesus said, "And greater works
than these will they do."
What we achieved between us
are things not even the Lord
managed while he was on this earth,
but he promised
we would make greater works,
and greater works are coming.
UNCOVERING PYRAMID SCAM
TWEEBeto Mendeleiev is obviously an alias.
I never knew who it was, and I didn't ask.
He was a Twitter user who started
exposing what Generacin Zoe was...
#ZOESCAM
...around October 2021.
JAVIER SMALDONE
COMPUTER SCIENTISHe didn't have many followers back then.
I remember I saw some of it,
but I didn't think much of it then.
I had other things going on,
work and stuff.
I've worked in computer science
for around three decades.
And in my spare time, I tweet.
I'd already seen
a few scams passed around,
so-called miracle businesses
based on cryptocurrencies,
whatever was trending.
And I found
something called Generacin Zoe,
which was really pretty funny.
Don't sell your house to invest.
Invest 500 dollars, 1,000 dollars.
Don't have any money? Sell the dog!
When I started looking into this
and seeing the world of Generacin Zoe,
I was intrigued
by Leonardo Cositorto as a person,
and I wondered,
"Where did he come from? Who is he?"
Looking into his background,
it turned out his father
was a businessman in the publishing sector
who went bankrupt
sometime at the beginning of the '80s.
Then,
to make ends meet,
he went door to door selling books.
And he took Leonardo Cositorto
and his brother Guillermo along.
There, Cositorto learned
or developed his ability for direct sales.
Street sales, going door to door.
- Hey, you're a cop, right?
- Yes, sir.
We have a sale in the area...
You can't sell anything here.
Don't get mad, I'm sorry.
I didn't know. I'll talk to the manager.
- Okay.
- I thought this was legal.
- Is the station around here?
- Two blocks to the left.
- To the left? Around the block?
- Yes.
- Are you Corporal Flores?
- Yes, how did you know?
Because of your badge.
Thank you, and I'm sorry.
Thank you. See you later.
Let's go to the police station right now.
Good morning. Is this the police station?
Corporal Flores sent me,
we have a sale going on.
He told me that...
In the '90s,
Cositorto was a trainer for salespeople.
He was a bit of a chameleon.
He spoke differently
according to the moment and the place.
Always presenting himself
as a revolutionary hero,
a successful businessman
about to change the economy.
About to create millionaires.
At some point,
he also entered the world of Evangelism.
Sometimes, He gives,
and sometimes, He takes.
And He takes so He can give again.
In simple terms, Catholic theology
says that being poor is a good thing.
The theology of prosperity says that God
actually wants you to be rich.
If you're poor, that's because
you're on bad terms with God.
Get down on your knees if you have to,
in the name of Jesus.
With all your heart.
No other place is higher
Or greater
Than here at Your feet
Than here at Your feet
It was hard to believe at first.
Who would ever give money to these people
who were just door-to-door salesmen?
DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
I was coming back from vacation.
It had been a long year.
The first day, they showed me documents.
"This is Leonardo Cositorto."
I'm Juliana Companys, district attorney
on the second shift in Villa Mara,
Crdoba province, Argentina.
My legal secretary, Florencia Bortolussi,
with Alejandro Bianco
and Germn Livingston, my employees,
and said, "Look at this."
They gave me
a bunch of documents titled "Zoe."
"What is this?"
And she told me she'd been investigating.
They'd found out via social media,
and this scam was exactly the same
as Soluciones Diarias, which had happened
five years ago in Villa Mara.
In the middle of what she was telling me,
I went, "Put something together.
We still don't have any victims."
The office got a call
that said the same thing.
Initially, we thought Zoe
was a moneylender.
There is high purchasing power
here in Villa Mara,
especially from people
with undeclared income,
who invest in illegal
fixed-income securities for a percentage,
then their money is loaned out.
So I told Alejandro Bianco
to go to Zoe, here in Villa Mara,
and to get a loan.
He describes some kind of huge office,
too big for Villa Mara.
"They've got a ton of computers, ma'am,
and they're all typing away."
"They took me to the back,
there were a few chairs,
they were having coffee,
they offered me some."
"It was a really nice office, ma'am."
He thought there was a lot of money there.
So he asked for the loan.
They said it wasn't a loan.
That he should invest.
They offered him
a $500 investment for a 7.5 yield.
And that if he brought in family members,
he would get 20% per family member.
That's when Ale came back and told me,
"It's not a moneylender, ma'am,
it's a pyramid scheme. Totally."
In the penal code,
for a crime to be committed
we need to have a victim of the scam.
So we figured
we'd wait until a victim came forth.
WHO THE HELL WOULD GIVE MONEY
TO A DUDE CALLED COSITORTO?
What really stood out to me in Zoe
was how disproportionate
and ridiculous the economic offer was.
Anyone who promised
a monthly yield of 7.5% in dollars
was clearly heading for ruin.
Florencia told me that, on Twitter,
some users were talking about Cositorto
and it being a pyramid scheme.
JAVIER SMALDONE - YOU ASK WHAT ZOE IS.
LIKE THE MATRIX, BUT COSITORTO OWNS IT.
It's happened before,
and it happened with this,
that when I take up a topic,
I become the center of attention,
and that leads to many others
getting in touch to provide information.
THE SLY LIVES OFF FOOLS,
FOOLS LIVE OFF THEIR WORK
We saw the tweets, of course,
and we were outraged.
We were furious.
Our question was, "How did they get in?
How do they know?"
"Who's feeding them information?
Why are they here?"
OSVALDO 'BETO' MENDELEIEV
DEPOSIT USDT AND YOU WILL RECEIVE ZOE CASH
It was a bit of keeping up
with what Cositorto did on Twitter.
Start identifying who's who
and how they operated.
When my Twitter friends started tweeting,
I started picking up on their comments
and supporting myself with them,
because I figured I should go on.
I wasn't alone anymore.
I started becoming
the bad guy in the movie.
People really believed in Cositorto.
Hello, Sergio.
What you're doing is an embarrassment.
You're stubborn
and not taking charge of what you started.
You did some real damage to me.
You manipulated people with your paper.
I don't know, you might feel
really powerful with your paper.
Unfortunately, I'll have to take
legal action against your newspaper,
your person, and your co-op.
And it's not a threat,
it's my right as a human being.
He was very aggressive.
He said things that were out of line
because I was just doing my job.
Meanwhile, he was going to the media
to say the exact opposite.
Most coaching schools are great,
but they were designed
in the last century.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
IN ARGENTINE FOOTBALL
It would be a triumph. Currencies
are driven by usability and trust.
When I saw that,
Leo giving interviews on TV,
I was ecstatic.
"Look, the leader. My director."
"There he is.
Switch the channel, Mom! That's him!"
The guy kept going. He bought pages
in big Argentine newspapers.
"This big Argentine newspaper
is saying this."
"Why is this Villa Mara newspaper
saying such things?"
SPONSORED CONTENGENERACIN ZOE WAS LICENSED
BY THE NATIONAL SECURITIES COMMISSION
I developed a robot.
It's nothing more than a system of signals
working through a series
of mathematical and statistical models
that predict how high or how low
the market will go.
ZOE ROBORosa Mara promised powerful bots.
I had a disagreement with Leonardo
about that,
"Leonardo, let's stick to the 7.5,
it's profitable, let's not go too high."
He said, "I own the company,
so I make the decisions."
"If I followed your lead,
the company would be ruined."
"That's why I'm the owner, not you."
CHRISTMAS ROBOFROM DECEMBER 6TH TO 13TH
In December 2021,
they launched their latest
great investment,
the so-called Christmas robot,
which doubled your money in three months.
And that was an avalanche of money.
Picture it, December.
End-of-year bonuses, Christmas,
New Year, vacations.
People were desperate.
That was the biggest fund collection
that Zoe ever had regarding bots.
It was a snowball that got bigger
as they promised more and more.
And people kept buying it.
More and more, more illusions
and more fantasies, wanting more.
It was a balloon, growing larger until...
it popped.
COSITORTOLAND
Jesus, on the cross, said, "Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do."
I can open Twitter
and read ten awful things,
just read them and nothing more.
FUNNY THING ABOUT A PYRAMID SCHEME IS,
SOME PEOPLE ALREADY PROFITED
Our tweets
had a sense of humor.
We weren't really laughing at the victims,
we were making fun of him.
COSITORTO IS THE GOOSE
THAT LAYS GOLDEN EGGS
Most of the things we published
came from archival footage.
Produced by them, and we, of course,
recorded the Zoom meetings
that Cositorto devoted to us at night,
where most of the time
he would complain about Twitter users
paid by the powers that be
that wanted to destroy Zoe.
This is the style of these people
being paid by who knows.
And they've got bots online,
spreading things
on social media and Twitter.
COSITORTO IS AN EVANGELICAL PASTOR...
They were messing
with something that was ours.
And we took it personally.
So we started talking among us.
And we began building an army.
I'M 100% ZOE
A Twitter army.
LET'S GO, LEO!
We had this strategy.
#ZOERESISTS
#KEEPSTRONGZOE
#WEREALLZOE
We'd tweet at dawn
so we'd be more visible.
Because we had to defend
the place we'd invested in,
and if that place suffered, so would we.
#DONOTMESSWITHZOE
JANUARY 2022
Roughly in the middle of January,
people were starting to ask
about their money.
They wanted their money,
but it wasn't there.
We were the ones to bear that.
What unbalanced the whole structure
was that famous Christmas bot.
CHRISTMAS ROBOFROM DECEMBER 6TH TO 13TH
When they had to start facing
those payments, the money wasn't there.
Everybody wanted to withdraw
the money they'd invested.
That money was invested
in different businesses, different things.
At that time, there was one person
who had his trust.
I told him, "Tell me the truth,
I'm the one facing the music
with my colleagues, in front of people."
"Well," he said, "you deserve the truth."
He said the money wasn't there.
They couldn't find the money.
They didn't know what'd happened.
I entered the administrative
WhatsApp group where Cositorto was
with his right-hand people.
And I demanded explanations.
And the administration answered,
"Insist on investments, push the bots."
"Keep telling people to give their money."
"Please answer my question."
I sent them an audio
telling them they were shameless.
That I'd tell people what was going on.
They removed me
from the administrative group.
Of all groups.
That's when I sent out all my audios,
like crazy, to the community in general.
The only one to blame is Cositorto, man.
He's got all the cash,
I've got audios from the Vice President
where he says Leo has all the liquidity.
He should pay.
JANUARY 8, 2022
Hello team, we're leaving. Here's Maxi.
We're going to Uruguay.
Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Colombia,
then back to Buenos Aires.
The year just started.
Tighten up your belts.
Say hi, Maxi!
I don't remember what Twitter user
uploaded the video of them
boarding a private jet to Uruguay.
So we saw that image,
saw them leaving the country.
ZOE LEADER LEFT THE COUNTRY.
WILL HE RETURN?
Team, I want to say hi from here,
from Santo Domingo.
Since this morning,
the attacks against my person
have continued,
and against the organization as well.
You know that a collapsed model
in a system that resists change
won't let a new model function,
as in an entrepreneurship
and business model like ours.
We won't stop sowing.
We won't let the opportunity pass us by.
It's vital that we understand each other,
that we support each other, all of us,
and that we can take a step forward
as a community,
consolidating the organization.
At that moment,
we trusted and listened
to everything that Leo said.
He said we should remain united,
that they wanted to split us up,
that they wanted to destroy the company
and that this would be over soon.
But that we should be patient,
so at that point, we still defended
and supported the entire community.
Good evening, everybody.
Thanks for joining and answering the call.
We're 8,000, 9,000 people right now.
And in these circumstances,
it's very important
that you can see how we respond
in the face of provocation,
of a systemic attack.
For example,
right now on Argentina's social media
there is a man, I will share it now,
his name is Beto, supposedly.
Notice how he uses a fake profile picture.
This is what he's posting right now.
He's obviously here on the Zoom call.
You have no idea who you're engaging with.
We should all learn
about the word "engagement."
First, Beto, if that's your name,
you should learn to engage with yourself
and heal the hatred inside you,
which is sending a growing company to shit
with your crappy personality.
You sold yourself to the powers that be,
who knows for how much money.
All newspapers and journalists are angry
at the fact that a new generation
was born into the world.
What lies behind
this cryptocurrency preacher?
Is there anything?
It became more and more frequent
until it got to the point
that Generacin Zoe was an everyday term.
They brought up
Generacin Zoe over and over,
along with Leonardo Cositorto.
He set up an enormous scam system
through Generacin Zoe.
There are always scammers.
We started feeling the tension.
Because it was all over the media.
They were calling it a scam.
It's incredible that on TV right now,
they say, "Scams and scandal."
I'd compare it to owning a grocery store.
Someone opens another store a block away
and starts hanging signs that say,
"That guy sells rotten meat and produce."
They start attacking you via the media.
At some point,
people will stop buying from you,
it all goes to hell
and your business sinks.
Hello, leaders. Good day, good afternoon.
I wanted to greet you from here
and discuss some points
so that they're clear.
The steps to take
today and tomorrow, especially.
It's crucial that we are...
Instead of giving up and saying,
"This is as far as we go,
we lost the money, and we don't know
how to repay our investors,"
their answer was to launch
a more tempting offer with more profits.
To access the last and only bot
that is active...
There are no other bots...
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FINAL ROBOT 4 MONTHS PROGRESSIVE
TOTAL PROFIT 110%
It was a way to support
and show our trust in the company,
because they had no liquidity
with which to pay the members.
And we went all-in on the final robot
because it was the last chance.
There was no other.
FINAL ROBOCLICK HERE
My main concern
was to have money coming in.
It didn't matter how much you had.
In those final moments,
the vital thing was to get money in.
So that also should have alerted us.
It should've made us go,
"This isn't working."
The lack of trust.
At that moment,
people were hurrying us, pressuring us.
There were colleagues
who couldn't take the strong emotions
we were exposed to there.
They didn't want to go to work.
We had cars following us to our homes.
We were already scared.
It was all really shady.
Colleagues were being threatened.
Some colleagues in the police force
that worked with me
were being really threatened.
Things got really nasty
after some violent incidents.
People showed up with weapons
to get their money in the Nez offices.
And things came to a head
when they closed the Villa Mara offices.
I'll be straight.
I won't wait for the company.
VOICE OF VICTIM
Until you return what you took
from our friends and me, I won't stop.
You keep giving me excuses,
telling me you'll sell things.
All lies.
I'm not a kid anymore.
If you don't care about your family
or yourself,
I'll expose you.
You don't have the guts
to pick up the phone and call,
you motherfucking son of a bitch.
You've got until January 16th.
I'm here for the 30 grand I invested.
POLICE
VOICE OF VICTIM
That's it, I'm done, man.
They broke into the offices.
They trashed the place,
and attacked people.
Some of them even had weapons.
#GIVEBACKTHEMONEY
They settled with five.
BUSINESS NOT REAL
#ZOETHIEVES
They took it, we have no money.
Everyone here wants their money.
ZOE DISMANTLES OFFICE IN ALICANTE
AFTER ACCUSATIONS OF PYRAMID SCHEME
ZOE SPAIN: FROM "EXPONENTIAL GROWTH" TO
"I DON'T HAVE A SINGLE CENT," SAYS LEADER
YRIMIA: "ONLY BATISTA AND COSITORTO
KNOW WHERE THE MONEY IS"
Not a single call,
no one checked on you at home.
This is all empty, they took everything.
#ZOESCAM
There are no computers, no money.
They took everything from the safe.
We worked the last week alone,
without the leaders.
We closed on February 14th.
All of a sudden, the office in Villa Mara
closed up without a warning.
Just a list of numbers
that said, "Call these. We're gone."
Some investors visited daily,
asking what to do.
And we just didn't know what to do.
The only thing we could suggest
was to get in touch with the DA
who was working on this.
At that point,
we had the case pretty much made.
We had arrest and search warrants.
Because we'd identified the organization.
We even had registered addresses for all.
We were just waiting for the first victim.
And that victim arrived on February 17th,
three of them, in fact.
They told us they hadn't been paid.
What we did was immediately
order the lvarez couple to be arrested.
We already knew that Cositorto
and Batista were out of the country,
so we ordered the search
of the addresses we had acquired.
SEARCH
When we got to those addresses,
there was nobody there. They were empty.
They had emptied out the office
in Villa Mara, Zoe Villa Mara.
Why? Because actually,
there was a federal police officer
who also worked
as Claudio lvarez's bodyguard.
JUAN GMEZ
WHATSAPP AUDIO
When we ordered the search,
this federal police officer
contacted Claudio lvarez,
calling him at 2:30 a.m.
"You're getting raided tomorrow.
Go on the run. Give me back my money."
He wanted the money he'd invested in Zoe,
and then they went on the run.
A series of searches were carried out
today in Villa Mara
due to fraud reports
against this organization,
ordered by the district attorney,
Juliana Companys.
That was on Friday. On Monday,
an international arrest warrant
was issued for Batista and Cositorto.
ALERThis is happening right now.
They've issued
the international arrest warrant
for Leonardo Nelson Cositorto.
It was the first time
we issued an international warrant.
We hadn't had the pleasure before.
So to speak.
We got in touch with Interpol.
We couldn't really identify
where they were.
But we did know that before the warrant,
Maxi Batista was headed
to Mexico and Spain.
MADRID
SPAIN
Maxi, did you ever feel
like Leo cut you loose?
Like he abandoned you?
MAXIMILIANO BATISTA GAVE AN INTERVIEW
WHILE ON THE RUN ON MARCH 18TH, 2022.
I'm not in touch with Leo.
I'd like to see
what's going on in his head.
What is he thinking?
What was he thinking when he said,
"It's fine, let's keep going"?
Because I just...
I didn't get how this could be happening.
Division causes chaos.
What happened in the company
was that some people had too much power.
The people with too much power
were the ones that handled everything.
The business, the money.
And while they handled that,
they took a lot of money.
There was plenty of stealing,
plenty of betrayals.
I'm living the worst nightmare of my life.
I've never felt this way.
I know what dying feels like.
Because
I feel like I died.
So, I started...
to live differently because I understood
that you can be both alive and dead.
And it felt like my soul died.
There are four arrests in the Zoe case.
Four people are detained
after turning themselves in
at the Villa Carlos Paz Judicial Unit.
To this date,
four out of the seven fugitives
have turned themselves in.
They are Claudio lvarez, Ivana lvarez,
Schamme Silvio and Fermani Silvia.
Cositorto tried to pretend
that he was back in Colombia.
He published a photo on Instagram
of him swimming in a pool
with some expensive sunglasses.
WE'LL RISE BACK UP IN APRIL
It said he was somewhere in Colombia.
But he'd made a post, a Zoom call,
in which the background
was very similar to a cabin complex
where they were supposed
to build one of Zoe's relaxation centers.
We noticed some similarities
between the backgrounds and thought,
"Maybe Cositorto is hiding there."
And Cositorto didn't like this.
He came out very angry, visibly angry,
on a Zoom call in the same place.
Team, I am now forced to make this video
to show them so that they finally realize
that where I am
is nowhere near Cartagena de Indias.
That I'm not a moron, I'm no idiot.
So don't underestimate me.
I wouldn't be in a place
where they could find me so easily.
And they're putting
people's lives in jeopardy.
Stop your lies and slander.
It's been six months
of you screwing with this community.
Two things make a big impact
on social media.
Outrage and humor.
I prefer, and clearly,
Beto Mendeleiev does as well,
to take things with a bit of humor.
Have a laugh.
We're launching the first point: Lands.
These lands are legendary lands.
WE'RE THE NEW GENERACIN ZOE
One day,
they left the Zoom whiteboard open
so anyone could draw things.
Guys, please disable the whiteboard.
And they drew things from pyramids
to penises,
even wrote "Beto lives,"
after Beto Mendeleiev
had his account taken down.
You're sharing your screen, you can do it.
No, I'm not sharing it,
James' team is sharing it.
- Thank you, leaders, for being here.
- Thanks.
- Despite the sabotage.
- Thanks.
Then, in another presentation,
someone managed to get camera privileges
and showed up
with an Egyptian pharaoh avatar.
Please authorize Camilo Len.
And Cami, go ahead, you have the floor.
Leonardo,
I don't know what to add
that hasn't already been said.
If someone
has anything to add...
Cositorto said he was in Colombia
because his Zoom said he was in Medelln.
But his phone was pinging
off the Dominican Republic.
Even though he was using a NAT gateway
to log into Zoom through the dark web,
which is the part of the internet
that is not visible to people,
he set it up to Spain.
In general, he used Spain.
He used his phone
in the Dominican Republic,
and it wasn't on the NAT.
So that told us
his exact physical location.
We're now communicating
with Leonardo Cositorto.
COSITORTO ACCUSED OF SCAM
AND UNLAWFUL ASSOCIATION
He is on the run. Cositorto, good evening.
I don't know if you could tell us
where you're speaking from today.
How are you, Gustavo? Good evening.
Nice to greet you, and here I am.
Right now,
we're in the Dominican Republic.
And why are you on the run
from Argentine law, Cositorto?
I'm not on the run,
I haven't run from anywhere,
I was simply on a trip. A tour.
We're in 21 countries.
Regarding Maxi Batista,
we knew he was in touch with his daughter.
We searched the daughter's house.
He was on the phone with her
when we knocked on the door.
We ordered her to hang up
because we had a warrant.
And then Batista's brother
showed up at the search
and told us that Batista
didn't want this for his daughter.
That same day, he decided to return
to Argentina and turn himself in.
Here is Maximiliano Batista.
MARCH 21, 2022
Will you make a statement, Maximiliano?
CRDOBA POLICE
Will Cositorto
turn himself in, Maximiliano?
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Now, back to Cositorto.
What did Interpol do?
Together with
the Dominican Republic Interpol,
they started looking
at the backgrounds of his recordings.
Those backgrounds were common
in rented beach houses.
So they looked at a realtor
to see if there was a house
similar to the one he was in.
They showed me that, like in the video,
the house for rent at the realtor
was the exact same.
JUAN DOLO
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Cositorto's lawyer in Crdoba
always claimed
that his client was willing to appear,
but they demanded guarantees from the DA,
like the preservation of freedom,
as well as clarity
regarding the charges against him.
He changed locations
every three, four, five days.
He was always on the beach of Juan Dolio
but in different places.
By then, we knew that the noose
was tightening around Cositorto.
It was just a matter of hours
until they found his whereabouts.
So Interpol took the same approach.
They watched the public Zoom
he did every day
and found the same home.
Dominican Republic personnel
entered early in the morning.
They told me
that they caught him by surprise.
He was found with another person,
a male who was helping him
rent these different locations.
He never thought
that I would manage to catch him.
APRIL 4, 2022
We woke up on April 4th
and realized that Leonardo Cositorto
had been arrested
in the Dominican Republic.
And our eyes went wide.
"Woah, what happened?"
That's when we realized
he really was a fugitive.
If Interpol arrests a person like this--
They usually only arrest criminals.
So there was more that we didn't know.
He was extradited to Argentina.
We saw them bringing him in handcuffs.
He was a different man.
We couldn't believe what we saw.
And that's when the scales
fell from our eyes.
In the center of Villa Mara,
in this provincial court...
DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
...Leonardo Cositorto is testifying
before District Attorney Juliana Companys.
District Attorney Juliana Companys
detains you.
She abuses her power,
abuses preventive detention,
and then she says
she's taking you to trial
where you will get five, eight, ten years,
but if you plead guilty, if you raise
your hand and accept the facts,
she'll set you free
in two, three, four years.
The first time I met him,
he came in furious.
He accosted me
and pointed his finger at me.
I told him to respect me
and put his finger down.
He must respect me,
and I will respect him.
He was very angry.
He said that his fall,
the fall of his company was my fault.
They sullied my name in an awful way.
They pretty much gave me
a social death sentence.
I think that if I walked down the street
last year, I would've been stabbed.
I didn't keep anyone's money.
Mr. Cositorto always held the position
that he was a victim of the system,
not just of the economic system
but the justice system as well.
176 CHARGES OF FRAUD
Mr. Leo Cositorto... I'm sorry,
Leonardo Cositorto made a statement.
He was charged with 176 counts of fraud
and one of unlawful association.
- Your politics...
- Excuse me.
Your politics...
Corrupt businessmen.
News outlets, bought and paid for.
Justice is the real scam in Argentina.
- Excuse me.
- Those four things.
I'm one of the victims in this story.
Regarding his trading,
we realized that it was actually a demo.
There was never any real trading.
Any broker can show you
a graphic representation
of what goes on in the market.
A broker profits
by making sure that those benefits
represented on the screen
are available to be withdrawn.
You could say
that what we were seeing in the broker
was a simulation.
- How many people do you represent?
- Twenty people.
Twenty and counting,
we're talking to them, supporting them.
- What are they asking of Cositorto?
- They want their funds back.
How much did they invest?
I've got guys that put in 5,000, 8,000...
- One of them put in $70,000.
- Dollars.
I invested $3,000 into Zoe.
That's 2,648 euros.
Both of us invested 6,000 euros each.
I invested $8,000.
For a Christmas robot,
and 500 for a trust to start.
I've got colleagues who invested $200,000.
It's Colombia, Peru,
Ecuador, United States,
Mexico, Guatemala.
-Spain. Germany.
- From Germany?
By our calculations,
of the $120 million from the total scam,
only 10% of that
was actually declared
or placed within the banking system.
The rest went undeclared
or to virtual wallets.
That money is also in different tax havens
where they can keep
and reinvest that money with no oversight.
I think a conservative estimate,
keeping in mind
all the countries they had branches in,
would be $250 million.
If someone told me it was 400,
it wouldn't surprise me in the least.
Mr. Cositorto considers
his business to be legitimate,
and what he did to be legitimate.
And he says he can show me,
although he hasn't on a judicial level,
his lawyers have not turned in anything
that could make me think,
"Fine, it's true,
he traded and earned this much,
or invested and earned this much."
He just hasn't.
About the conclusive evidence
we have against him,
he tries to refute it
but runs out of arguments,
and ends up going nowhere.
A lot of people have asked me,
"Why do you keep going with this?"
"Zoe has already fallen."
"No one will believe Cositorto
or give him any money."
But there are a lot
of similar scams out there,
so it would be good if this served
as a wake-up call to get people
to pay more attention.
So that next time they're offered
some miraculous investment
with impossible profits,
they can remember
something called Generacin Zoe
from a certain Cositorto.
After the pandemic,
there's been exponential growth in scams,
particularly the virtual kind.
Exponential.
The sentences are very light,
so nothing changes.
Many of them go free
despite the millions
that they might've scammed.
There are no legitimate
or strong sanctions
to stop them from doing it.
Within each of us,
there's the possibility of being deceived.
And there are organizations like this one,
trying to find
our weak spots to reel us in.
To...
cast a line where they know we'll bite.
GAMES
ICE CREAM - JUICE
The story of Zoe was a rollercoaster.
In the beginning, it was exciting,
but I definitely felt
completely frustrated.
And there was no going back.
It was like,
I don't know, a heartbreak.
A betrayal of our trust,
our dreams, all those illusions
that made us live again.
They were gone.
I think love first turned to anger,
then to hate.
First, anger at myself,
"How could I fall into this scam?"
Right? I felt awful.
Then, against Leo himself.
EVERY BALL TURNED HAS A PRIZE
There was this feeling of abandonment,
desperation, anxiety, sadness.
A lot of people were scared,
a lot of them were depressed.
Many people attempted suicide.
Broken families, destroyed marriages.
You had people who invested
inheritances, their homes.
They didn't have anywhere to live.
They had nothing at all.
COSITORTO, GIVE THE MONEY BACK
There's just no way...
ZOE SCAM - WE WANT JUSTICE
...that a person
with even an ounce of humanity
could commit such merciless actions.
COSITORTO
GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK
Only a sociopath would do this.
BOUWER PRISON
CRDOBA, ARGENTINA
I don't feel responsible
for what happened.
If a company is under attack,
or being hurt,
what company could hold on?
What company could be trustworthy?
I never thought that Zoe was a scam.
I still don't think so.
I think that the system
and the world played a trick on us.
And I think that
I'm paying for that trick in here.
I could apologize to the victims,
but instead, by June 2024,
if you allow me to work,
I've got a landline here.
I'm capable, it's not the first time
I became a millionaire,
I was a millionaire by 24.
I'll give it all back
in a year, or two, or three.
I'll simply keep moving forward.
Time goes on.
Of course, I'd love to be 35 years old.
This happened at age 53.
How long will this last? I don't know.
But I won't raise my hand
and take the blame
for something I did not do.
THE ACCUSED IN THE GENERACIN ZOE CASE
IN VILLA MARA,
LEONARDO COSITORTO, MAXIMILIANO BATISTA,
CLAUDIO LVAREZ AND SILVIA FERMANI
ARE IN PRISON AWAITING TRIAL.
ROSA MARA GONZLEZ IS ON THE RUN.
LUIS YRIMIA IS IN DUBAI.
THE ZOE CASE HAS TENS OF ACCUSED
ALL OVER THE WORLD.
MANY WERE PROCESSED.
MANY WORKED IN MULTI-LEVEL BUSINESSES
OR CREATED THEIR OWN.