888 – The code of silence! How Lyconet top marketers cashed in via Cyprus and circumvented Austrian tax law
It sounds like the plot of an economic crime thriller, but it is bitter reality:
An exclusive circle of Lyconet top marketers is said to have received millions in commissions via a payment structure with secret ‘888 membership numbers’, anonymised, tax-optimised and outside the official accounting systems.
At the centre: an inconspicuous tax office in Styria and a little-transparent company in Cyprus.
Insight into the system – made public for the first time
For the first time, we can give our customers and anyone else interested a deeper insight into the structure of this system – information that we have not been able to publish until now for tactical reasons.
Our analyses show how deeply ramified and systematic this payment model was structured and what legal questions arise from it.
The perfidious model
According to internal sources, members at career level 7 or 8 received a second membership number in addition to their official Lyconet ID, beginning with ‘888’, followed by their rank number in the network.
These numbers were not used for customer acquisition, but as recipient accounts for commission payments, which initially flowed through GIH Global Investment LLP in Nicosia (Cyprus). Subsequently, an Austrian tax consultancy firm took over the transfer of funds to the actual beneficiaries.
What looks like a simple tax optimisation model is a sophisticated cover-up system designed to conceal the beneficial owners.
After all, those who do not reveal their identity are more difficult to prosecute, whether by tax authorities or insolvency administrators.
Insolvency and the shadow of the past
In the summer of 2025, Lyconet Austria GmbH filed for insolvency. Debts: over 5.7 million euros.
The Supreme Court (OGH) had previously classified the business model as a prohibited pyramid scheme, a slap in the face for thousands of aggrieved small investors.
Brisant: According to documents, Dr Hubert Reif, chief lawyer for Hubert Freidl and owner of the law firm Reif & Partner Rechtsanwälte OG (Graz), was already the sole owner of Lyconet Austria GmbH.
Millions flowing to Cyprus
While insolvency administrators are struggling through a web of corporate connections, according to informants, millions have already flowed via Cyprus, via the ‘888s’, past official structures.
The allegations: tax evasion. Money laundering. Delayed insolvency.
And all this possibly with the active support of Austrian tax advisors?
Who is protecting whom?
The law firm Köhler & Partner has so far declined to comment on press enquiries.
Other law firms mentioned, such as Möstl & Pfeiffer and MGI-Graz, are also under observation.
Whether they were accomplices, beneficiaries or just naive administrators remains unclear for the time being, but the system was apparently not only tolerated, but actively exploited.
Under Austrian professional law, tax advisors are obliged to report suspected money laundering and not to participate in illegal structures.
And the insolvency administrator?
The insolvency administrator himself speaks of a ‘pyramid scheme doomed to failure from the outset.’ The question now is: Can the money be traced and recovered?
One name keeps coming up: Markus Käfer, who, according to informants, is one of the biggest profiteers. He is currently in South America, far away from the Austrian investigative authorities, where, according to group chat messages, he is apparently trying his hand at a new model: a ‘token-based representation of an investment model in the field of livestock farming’ or, to put it more simply, a blockchain-based pig farm.
Conclusion
What is emerging here is not an isolated case, but a predictable system failure. When tax advisors become paymasters of the shadow economy, when network elites rely on dubious offshore constructs in a system that has ruined thousands of people financially, then more than just an insolvency report is needed.
What is needed is: legal review, consistent prosecution, complete transparency.
Note
This article is based on publicly available sources, documented complaints from investors and an official press enquiry to Blocktrade. It is a journalistic analysis. All statements about legal risks or possible contractual constellations are to be understood as assessments, not as conclusive legal advice.
Sources
KSV1870 Insolvency report Lyconet Austria GmbH (FN 503414 s), accessed via: ksv.at
AKV Europa: Insolvency proceedings Lyconet Austria GmbH. PDF notification, as of 08/2025: akv.at
Supreme Court (OGH), decision of 22 January 2025: Classification of Lyconet/myWorld as a prohibited pyramid scheme
Company register extract: Lyconet Austria GmbH (FN 503414 s)
Parliamentary question on corporate interrelationships and lack of transparency at Lyconet/myWorld, Austrian Parliament, question no. 13528/J
ORF help page: Following Supreme Court ruling – Lyconet customers can reclaim money, ORF.at
OTS press release: Lyoness Europe AG – Further Supreme Court rulings on terms and conditions, ots.at
Die Presse: ‘After Lyoness, now Lyconet also bankrupt’, 2025.
Weekend Magazine: ‘Marketing company bankrupt: 565 creditors affected’,
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