On September 30, 2025, a U.S. court ordered Clayton Sampson and Elisha Sampson to pay $750,000 in punitive damages to plaintiffs Mary Jane Beauregard and John Hugh Smith in the EnvyTV fraud case, per. This award, nearly double the $384,717 in compensatory damages, follows a $810,445 default judgment in September 2024, bringing the total to $1.56 million, per. The court cited the Sampsons’ contradictory testimony and failure to produce financial records during discovery, emphasizing the need to deter future fraud, per. EnvyTV, launched in 2019 as a pirated streaming MLM, defrauded investors through false promises of affiliate positions and equity, per.
The court highlighted inconsistencies in Clayton Sampson’s statements. In his December 14, 2018, bankruptcy petition, Sampson claimed assets worth $0–$50,000, per. Yet, during the January 2024 trial, he testified his crypto holdings were $200,000–$300,000 at EnvyTV’s formation on the same date, per. At the February 2025 punitive damages hearing, Sampson initially claimed 1,273.31 units in crypto, then clarified it as dollar value, contradicting himself under cross-examination, per. Elisha Sampson argued a fraud judgment would harm her life insurance sales but admitted selling policies in the past year, per.
The Sampsons’ Profit and Loss Statement for January 2019–February 2024 reported $4.8 million in income, mostly from EnvyTV subscriptions, but omitted earnings from Envy-related entities like EnvyCares and EnvyConnect, per. It also excluded income from Sampson’s promotions of MLM schemes like EtherConnect, Daisy Global, Omega Digital, and Meta Trader 5, per. The statement listed $1.3 million in “costs of goods sold” as affiliate commissions but failed to disclose commissions received by the Sampsons, who demoted plaintiffs to boost their own payouts, per. Sampson’s long-term promotion of World Financial Group (WFG), an MLM for financial services where he holds “Senior Executive Chairman” rank since 2004, raises questions about unreported income, per LinkedIn.
The ruling underscores the court’s frustration with the Sampsons’ lack of forthrightness, stating their fraud “offends the public’s sense of justice,” per. EnvyTV’s MLM model, promising riches through pirated content subscriptions, mirrors schemes like Daisy Global and Omega Digital, which Sampson promoted, per. Victims, including Beauregard and Smith who invested $100,000 in December 2018 for promised 2% equity and “master” affiliate positions, highlight recruitment tactics, per. No X posts or recent discussions were found, but the case aligns with ongoing U.S. scrutiny of MLMs under the Securities Act of 1933, per Coinlaw.io.
Investors should verify MLM opportunities via SEC filings at sec.gov and avoid schemes promising high returns without transparency, per. Bitcoin (BTC) ($113,234) and Ethereum (ETH) ($4,070) remain stable, per CoinMarketCap, but MLM fraud erodes crypto trust. Diversify into USDC or ETH with stop-losses below BTC’s $112,000, per TradingView. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for regulatory alerts. The Sampson case may deter similar frauds, but vigilance is essential in 2025’s volatile market, per.
