Michael Popovich’s VIDME Illusion: Multilevel Marketing, Ministry, and Deceptive Promotion Practices

How a Billion-Dollar Dream Blurs the Line Between Ministry, Marketing, and Misleading Claims

A Platform “More Than YouTube”?

Michael Popovich, the co-founder and face of VIDME, claims he’s building a platform that combines the best of YouTube, Netflix, Patreon, Mindvalley, and even spirituality. For $34.99 a month, subscribers supposedly gain access to world-class education, creator content, and community-driven experiences. This has been promised for many months

But when you strip away the slick presentations, affiliate promises, and “love vibes,” what remains is a pattern of deceptive marketing, unverifiable claims, and troubling legal and ethical concerns.

This exposé reveals the facts Popovich doesn’t want online.

Court Orders, Accusations & Proven Misconduct

At the center of this investigation is a legal filing that Michael Popovich cannot ignore. In July 2025, a civil case was opened under docket number 25CV113, naming Popovich in an official capacity and seeking over $100,000 in damages. The redacted summons confirms that he was served, is legally required to respond, and that the matter involves allegations tied to his financial conduct.

These aren’t baseless internet rumors. This is real legal action, backed by a court document that he’s trying to keep out of the public eye.

And it’s not his first association with questionable dealings.

Key Events Timeline

• April 2022: Popovich raises $620K via Legacy Storage SEC filing
  ◦ YouTube video from Freedom Ministries of Mike openly discussing Legacy Storage investment to his congregation — jump to 31:00
• Sept–Nov 2024: Popovich issues sub documents without consent of other VIDME managing members
• Sept 2024: First known “Freedom Ministries” investment solicitation
• Dec 2024: Single mother wires $10K after spiritual appeals
• July 1, 2025: VIDME launches beta
• July 29, 2025: Internal memo confirms Popovich expelled for cause
• July 29, 2025: Civil lawsuit filed (25CV113), seeking over $100K in damages

Exploiting Trust: The Affiliate Pyramid, Sub Docs & Double Dipping

Popovich didn’t just stretch the truth — he rewrote the rules behind the scenes.

Between September and November 2024, he issued investment sub-documents tied to VIDME, without notifying or gaining consent from other managing members. These documents were used to solicit funds — in some cases from vulnerable individuals — all while bypassing the platform’s legal oversight.

Even more alarming: whistleblower testimony and internal audits confirm that over 1,500 fake affiliate accounts were created in a classic pyramid structure. This operation was orchestrated under the direction of known MLM veterans, Patrick Laing and Larry Lane, both of whom Popovich had knowingly recruited.

Popovich then created a second affiliate account for himself under Freedom Ministries, enabling him to double-dip commissions — profiting off both downlines simultaneously.

This wasn’t just deceptive — it was deliberate. A fraudulent affiliate network built from the inside.

Admin Abuse & Security Breach

Evidence also shows Popovich granted Andrew “Mike Charbo” Charbo (a lifetime MLM promoter who went by his nickname to avoid confusion with Michael Popovich) administrator-level access to VIDME’s backend.

Charbo:

• Represented himself as an “owner”
• Violated internal privacy protocols
• Issued Stripe payment links to external parties — links only meant for authorized company personnel

Charbo was only removed after others discovered his unauthorized behavior — behavior Popovich allowed and benefited from.

Voices from Inside the Ministry

Former staff and followers of Freedom Ministries have come forward to reveal disturbing patterns:

• Popovich allegedly asked for “extra tithes” for sick or dying people, only to spend the money on lavish gifts for his wife.
• Eyewitnesses described seeing luxury handbags and fur coats appear days after fundraising appeals.
• Members who questioned decisions were gaslighted, isolated, or accused of lacking faith.

This cult-like control masked itself in spiritual language — but was, in practice, a system of manipulation, financial coercion, and emotional abuse.

According to a source:

“It felt like church. But it was always about the money.”

These testimonies reveal the psychological toll left in Popovich’s wake — long before VIDME ever launched.

The Single Mother Story (Without Naming Her)

In a redacted PDF shared by a whistleblower, we reviewed internal correspondence between Freedom Ministries (Popovich’s organization) and a vulnerable single mother. (Note: While the term “solo mother” is more common in New Zealand, we have used “single mother” throughout this section because it aligns with the terminology used by Popovich himself in promotional material and spiritual appeals.) She was encouraged to make a $10,000 investment, reportedly framed as a “faith investment” or a spiritual seed offering that would return future blessings — potentially even financial.

The solicitation made no mention of risk, refunds, or the fact that VIDME was still in development at the time. It relied on emotional appeals and spiritual manipulation.

A direct quote from Popovich in the redacted document reads:

“I’m glad it is a blessing to you and your family! We will do well with this investment. Love of love and continued blessings…”

These types of assurances were used alongside vague promises that she would be “looked after.” The woman, trusting in the spiritual authority of Popovich and Freedom Ministries, wired the money — money she could not afford to lose.

A whistleblower with direct access to the documents confirmed that this pattern was not isolated, and that other participants were targeted with similar emotional tactics.

This woman’s story is heartbreaking — but sadly, not unique.

MLM Infrastructure & 3-Tier Pay Plan

Michael Popovich’s multilevel marketing deception didn’t happen by accident — it was architected with help from seasoned MLM veterans.

• Patrick Laing was introduced to the company in April 2025, though internal emails later revealed he had already been collaborating with Popovich in March to co-create the “Income Estimator.”
• Larry Lane entered the scene in June 2025, right as the affiliate platform opened to public access. It was during this time that a whistleblower noticed an enormous spike in user accounts, prompting a backend audit.

That audit revealed:

• Over 1,500 user accounts, all stacked at the bottom of a single, deep affiliate downline.
• These accounts had no paid subscriptions — they were purely designed to bulk up the numbers.
• All were tied to referral activity beneath Larry Lane’s downline.
• Nearly all of the phone numbers associated with these accounts began with the dialing code +23, indicating likely bulk uploads from regions across Africa.

While there’s no evidence Larry Lane personally created these accounts, someone in his referral structure clearly did. The motive? To make the platform appear to be exploding with growth — and to build fake downlines for early promoters to profit from.

Popovich, fully aware of the scheme, said nothing — and continued allowing it to operate unchecked.

This kind of database manipulation isn’t just misleading. It’s a textbook strategy used in pyramid schemes to create FOMO, inflate credibility, and trap real investors under a mirage of momentum.

The whistleblower recognized the red flags instantly:

“If I think something feels off, I am usually right — and I will find it.”

They did. And now so do we.

Investor Fraud & Removal Grounds

Behind the scenes at Luminus Media LLC, the internal fallout was swift and damning.

As of July 28, 2025, Michael and Barbara Popovich were formally expelled from the company for cause — a decision communicated to investors via private letter and now submitted to the court as part of evidentiary filings.

The letter, authored by Managing Member Chris Miller, cited the following grounds for removal under Section 6.3.2 of the Operating Agreement:

• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Unauthorized financial activity, including actions taken in violation of Section 5.1.5(6)(b)
• Conduct inconsistent with their obligations as managers and representatives of the company

While the full letter remains confidential due to legal restrictions, its contents — soon to be part of public court records — establish a clear justification for expulsion: Popovich abused his position, misrepresented the company, and acted without the knowledge or consent of other managing members.

His actions weren’t just reckless — they violated the company’s foundational governance.

Once confirmed through internal audit and testimony, the response was decisive: Popovich was removed. His access revoked. His influence cut off.

False Claims of Ownership and Influence

While promoting VIDME, Popovich routinely claimed access to high-profile influencers — including athletes, producers, and UFC fighters — suggesting they were poised to join the platform. But these connections were not his.

The relationships belonged to Chris Miller, whose prior ventures (including Fit Soda) gave him genuine access to these networks. Zoom recordings confirm Popovich attempted to leverage Chris’s database as his own, even while the operating agreement had not yet been finalized (signed only in December 2024).

According to internal sources, none of these individuals were ever formally brought into the VIDME project — in large part because of growing concerns over Popovich’s exaggerated earnings tools and affiliate tactics.

The Pitch Deck That Promised Everything

The VIDME pitch deck that was in the “Affiliate Tools” of the Affiliate dashboard— titled VidMe Membership & Referral Program – Presentation PDF — is a masterclass in inflated expectations, vague timelines, and emotionally charged buzzwords.

It claims VIDME will:

• Positively impact 1 billion lives
• Build the “world’s first content & revenue platform” that pays everyone
• Deliver a “billion-dollar creator economy”
• Use affiliate payouts as a “weapon of mass distribution”
• Integrate crypto, AI, E-wallets, and creator tools “within months”

But beneath the lofty branding, the deck lacks:

• Product screenshots or working demos
• Revenue projections based on traffic or ad data
• Any mention of platform risk, liabilities, or compliance
• Team bios (no CTO, no legal officer, no engineering lead)

Popovich also brags about a global payment infrastructure — even though, as of August 2025, many payout systems remain non-functional or “coming soon.”

Stripe was immediate as that is the payment platform associated with subscriptions. iPayout integrated into the platform in July — the first commission payouts were on or around July 15th.

The deck even refers to affiliate recruitment as a “creator multiplication” system, skirting close to MLM structure while avoiding the language.

In short, this wasn’t a deck built to attract tech investors. It was built to emotionally recruit believers.

This was never an investment deck – Mike uploaded that PDF to the affiliate tools so affiliates could present it to “referrals” during their pitch.

A Ministry or a Monetized MLM?

Michael Popovich doesn’t just sell a platform — he sells salvation with a subscription. Across Facebook posts, prayer documents, and live Zooms, he carefully weaves spiritual promises into financial opportunity, creating a hybrid of prosperity gospel and MLM-style recruitment.

In his July 10, 2025 Zoom, Popovich even bragged:

“You don’t even need to create content. Just share it with someone who shares it…”

That alone should raise eyebrows.

Instead of a platform built around content value or audience engagement, Popovich has constructed a monetized pyramid — and wrapped it in spiritual language to disarm criticism.

Here’s how it works:

• You pay $34.99/month for platform access.
• You’re encouraged to recruit others to do the same.
• You earn a percentage from their subscriptions (and theirs, and theirs…)

All of it is packaged as divine mission.

This is classic multilevel marketing — but with a theological twist.

And it gets worse. Whistleblowers confirmed that Popovich had created multiple accounts under different identities — including one linked to Freedom Ministries — to double-dip affiliate commissions. Others in the system were instructed to do the same.

It’s not just unethical. It’s systematized deception.

What makes it so dangerous is the weaponization of belief. Popovich doesn’t just pitch VIDME as a business — he calls it a movement. He asks for spiritual obedience. He labels critics as doubters, and casts whistleblowers as enemies of progress.

If this sounds more like a cult than a company — you’re not wrong.

The Profit Estimator Timeline

Popovich’s use of the VIDME Income Estimator — a downloadable spreadsheet that calculated affiliate earnings — wasn’t a brief experiment. It was a cornerstone of his pitch for months.

The tool, co-created with Patrick Laing, began circulating as early as February 2025.

Despite internal objections — including multiple documented warnings from Chris Miller — Popovich continued promoting it until early June, when outside scrutiny forced a sudden change.

The tool itself:

• Projected guaranteed income based on how many people you recruited
• Suggested passive income was possible without creating content
• Used exact dollar amounts, a practice discouraged by FTC guidelines

On a June 12, 2025 Zoom call, Popovich publicly admitted that lawyers had told him to remove the tool.

This wasn’t a misunderstanding — it was a pattern:

Inflate potential. Promise results. Only walk it back when cornered.

The Income Estimator wasn’t just a feature. It was the core bait used to pull people into a platform that never functioned as promised.

The E-Wallet Shuffle

One of the most glaring red flags in Popovich’s financial structure was his over-promising on affiliate payout mechanisms. He marketed VIDME as a globally accessible platform, claiming it could support payments to creators and affiliates anywhere in the world via a wide range of e-wallet systems.

He boasted that affiliates could get paid through:

• Bitcoin
• PayPal
• Visa prepaid cards
• Apple Pay
• Cash App
• Direct bank wires
• Streaming credits

In the July 10, 2025 Zoom call, he claimed:

“We’re creating payout tools for the masses — it doesn’t matter what country you’re in.”

But whistleblowers and former insiders confirm that although some commissions were paid out in July, most of these payout methods were non-functional or unavailable to the majority of users — even weeks after launch. Complaints began to mount from affiliates who couldn’t withdraw earnings or saw commissions frozen with no explanation.

The illusion of global functionality was further propped up by vague timelines and flashy interface mockups that never materialized into operational tools. The payout system, promised to be “seamless,” ended up being a digital mirage — slick in theory, absent in practice.

This tactic — offering an overwhelming number of payout options — functions as a smokescreen. It creates the illusion of technological sophistication and readiness, while diverting attention away from a simple truth:

People weren’t getting paid.

The failure to deliver on basic payment functionality not only undercuts Popovich’s credibility, but also raises legitimate concerns about whether the platform’s infrastructure was ever ready to support the scale of operations he promised.

Clarification:

• Multiple members of the internal build team requested on numerous occasions that the platform NOT launch on July 1st. It wasn’t ready. But Mike insisted — and pushed ahead regardless.
• Multiple team members recall working 24 hours straight alongside the rest of the build team to manually upload thumbnails, configure channel assets, and prepare the platform for launch — despite knowing it was not technically ready. VIDME required complex coding and infrastructure, especially to support combined features like subscriptions and payouts. But instead of waiting for those systems to be stable, Mike launched prematurely while continuing to make public guarantees.
• Chris consistently cautioned users in earlier YouTube videos with language like “I can’t guarantee” and “We need to be 100% sure,” but those warnings were ignored.

The “Profit Calculator” Incident

Before it was quietly scrubbed from the site, Popovich promoted a downloadable earnings estimator tool that painted a wildly optimistic picture of passive income. The “VIDME Income Calculator” encouraged affiliates to imagine exponential earnings — not through content creation, but through recruitment.

Using the estimator, Popovich promised:

“If you can share this with one person a month, and they do the same, in one year you’ll be making $33,055 annually. That’s life-changing money for single mothers out there.”

However, the Earnings Calculator also stated below…

“Example: Your 12 Members – Enroll 12 – Who Enroll 12”

So truth be told, this was a 3-tiered MLM. And that single mom would need to sell a grand total of 1,884 subscriptions through three levels of downline. (And this all assumes zero churn!) Not too realistic — and certainly not the easy money Popovich portrayed.

Popovich made this claim twice a week on his Zoom calls for months. But he would continue to deny the MLM structure, claiming to be just a simple two-tiered affiliate plan “like Walmart or Amazon.” Clearly a false-equivalency pitch meant to intentionally deceive.

In addition to the two tiers of commissions in VIDME’s affiliate plan is a 25% “Check Match” bonus. This was where all the big numbers from their projections came from. How? By unlocking additional downline overrides to pay three levels deep.

A notable revelation on the Earnings Calculator itself was the disclaimer stating:

“Note: 25% Influencer Bonus calculation assumes your Tier 1 & Tier 2 each enroll the same Number Of Members which includes your Tier 3 members”

What’s that? Tier 3 members?

This is a crystal-clear admission of the 3-tiered MLM affiliate pay plan that Popovich and VIDME have denied for so long.

Nobody knows how many of these calculators were downloaded over the months, but YouTube remains littered with presenters using it.

(See attached Excel file entitled VIDME Income Estimator to see for yourself.)

But then something changed dramatically. Just ten days after the Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger’s first “VIDME Exposé” aired, suddenly Mike Popovich’s beloved spreadsheets were all gone.

Popovich admitted in a June 12, 2025 Zoom that lawyers ordered him to remove the tool. Why? Because it violated key FTC guidelines — offering fixed dollar figures tied to recruitment is a major red flag.

He said:

“We had to take it down. The lawyers told me the profit estimator could be misinterpreted.”

This was no small slip-up. The calculator:

• Implied guaranteed income
• Framed success through team-building, not product use
• Omitted earning disclaimers required by law

It mirrored income representations typical of MLM and Ponzi-style schemes — with unrealistic returns based on ever-expanding recruitment.

The fact that Popovich needed legal intervention to stop making these claims shows just how far VIDME drifted from ethical marketing.

Company Structures and Obfuscation

Michael Popovich was publicly positioned as the visionary behind VIDME. However, the team that built the platform maintain that Chris Miller’s original vision was centered on transparency, creator empowerment, and sustainable tech infrastructure — values that were compromised by Popovich’s conduct.

But corporate documents reveal a different story — one of expulsion, shadow operations, and opaque financial channels.

On July 29, 2025, a memo from Luminus Media LLC (VIDME’s parent company) confirmed Popovich had been formally removed as a managing member. The decision came after internal audits and mounting concerns from founding leadership about fraud and misconduct. The memo directly contradicts Popovich’s ongoing public claims that he still represents or leads the platform.

The memo reads, in part:

“The expulsion of Michael and Barbara Popovich was not taken lightly. It followed an extensive internal review of conduct that created unacceptable legal, fiduciary, financial, and reputational risk to the Company and its stakeholders. The findings uncovered a consistent and alarming pattern of governance failure, misrepresentation, and non-compliance.”

Perhaps the most eye-opening detail:

“Personal bank accounts and credit card accounts linked to the Company’s primary operating account.”

The memo further states that Popovich’s actions raised immediate legal concerns under multiple areas of federal and state law, including:

• SEC fundraising and disclosure rules
• Federal wire fraud – 18 U.S.C. § 1343
• Bank fraud – 18 U.S.C. § 1344
• Affinity fraud statutes (state and federal)
• Securities and deceptive trade practices statutes

To highlight the severity of such misconduct, consider SEC Rule 10b-5, which prohibits any act or scheme that employs “any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud” in connection with the purchase or sale of securities, see [Luminus-Media-Offering-Memorandum.pdf] for reference).

Beyond this memo, Popovich’s financial history raises even more questions. In 2022, he filed a Form D with the SEC for Legacy Storage Neosho LLC — a real estate investment opportunity that reportedly raised over $620,000. To date, there is no transparent accounting linking that money to any finished project, nor any disclosure tying those funds to VIDME. Yet Popovich has continued to promote himself online as a visionary entrepreneur.

Worse still is the pattern of mixed messaging and brand manipulation. Depending on the audience, Popovich pitched VIDME as:

• A divine mission to raise consciousness through media
• A creator platform offering passive income through MLM-style recruitment
• A quick-money opportunity for anyone willing to invest and share content

Each of these narratives had its own emotional appeal — spiritual calling, entrepreneurial freedom, financial gain — but none came with verified executive leadership, regulatory filings, or audited financials.

In short:
Popovich built a platform that looked radically different depending on who you were and what he needed from you. That’s not branding genius — that’s strategic obfuscation, and it’s a classic marker of affinity fraud.

As this Mike Popovich–Freedom Ministries–Luminus Media–VIDME mess continues to unravel, expect more disturbing revelations.

In the meantime: be skeptical. Be loud. And above all, be smart with your money.

Documents & Evidence Archive

For those seeking transparency, here are the original source files that support this investigation. These documents are real, verifiable, and reflect what Michael Popovich has been working to suppress:

• Court Summons – [25CV113 – Popovich Case Filing.pdf]
  Confirms legal action filed against Popovich with over $100,000 in damages sought.
• Corporate Memo – [Luminus-Media-LLC-Removal-Notice.pdf] – July 29 2025
  Official document confirming Popovich’s removal from the company.
• Freedom Ministries Solicitation Email – [Investment-Solicitation-Freedom-Ministries-Redacted.pdf]
  A whistleblower-provided record showing religious manipulation used to extract a $10,000 investment from a single mother.
• VIDME Income Estimator – [Vidme-Income-Estimator.xlsx]
  Excel spreadsheet that was the centrepiece of recruitment for months, but was removed for legal reasons.
• VIDME Pitch Deck (Affiliate Version) – [VidMe Membership & Referral Program – Presentation.pdf]
  The exaggerated vision document Popovich circulated to affiliates to show to their potential referrals — not to investors.
• SEC Filing – [Legacy Storage Neosho LLC – 2022 Form D.pdf]
  Shows Popovich’s involvement in a real estate offering unrelated to VIDME — no clarity on use of funds.
• Court Judgment – [Femrite et al. v. Ripka Enterprises – 2015 Default Ruling.pdf]
  Details a fraudulent investment led by Chuck Ripka, Popovich’s ministry associate.

Each document contributes to a pattern of behavior and supports the broader case against the deceptive tactics used to promote and monetize VIDME.

Have You Invested in VIDME or Freedom Ministries?

If you’ve invested in VIDME or contributed to Freedom Ministries — and now feel misled, pressured, or financially harmed by Michael Popovich or his affiliates — you are not alone.

We encourage you to share your story. Whether you have documents, screenshots, or just your experience, every piece of evidence helps protect others from falling victim.

To share confidentially, email Danny de Hek directly at danny@dehek.com
Or submit anonymously via the contact form at dehek.com/contact

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