February 2022. Sai Noi, Nonthaburi, Bangkok, Thailand.
A flock of seagulls squawk over a landfill. A muddy road leads to a silent factory.
A handful of factory workers hang around smoking and checking their mobile phones.The area is surrounded by tattered plastic fencing and littered with rubbish.
Founded by a Finnish CEO, Corsair Group says it's here to help save the planet from plastic waste - together with you.
According to the company's promotional materials, the factory processes 125 tonnes of plastic waste into oil each week. That's equivalent to the weight of an entire blue whale.
When a Yle MOT contributor visited Sai Noi, what they saw was very different from what was advertised on social media. Nothing seemed to be happening.
This report by MOT and Columbia Journalism Investigations CJI tells the story of how a group of network marketing and business experts developed a business idea that sounded appealing. The chief architects behind the idea included a handful of people influential in the OneCoin pyramid scheme. They combined people's growing interest in cryptocurrency and conservation**,** and began to promote their idea through network marketing.
The same idea has been presented to the public under several different names.
Currently, the Italian police say they are investigating Corsair Group as a possible pyramid scheme. Experts interviewed by MOT also said they found the company's practices unconvincing.
Jussi Saloranta, CEO of Corsair Group, told Yle that the company is a sustainable enterprise.
"If someone thinks that we are somehow a scam or engaged in criminal activity, they are out of their minds. The results speak for themselves. We are one of the world's fastest growing companies fighting the plastic waste problem," Saloranta said.
Claims difficult to verify
Corsair says it recycles plastic waste through a process called pyrolysis. This is how it works: the plastic is heated in an oxygen-free environment. As a result, oil is produced. The oil can be used to manufacture fuel and, according to the company, new plastic products.
The company says it collects the waste from neighbouring landfills, its own waste treatment plant, dozens of collection points across central Bangkok, its partner companies and local fishing associations, among other sources.
According to its website, the company has removed more than 12 million kilograms of plastic waste from the environment, and helped some 2,500 people offset their plastic footprint. These claims are difficult to verify.
The company's social media posts tout the opportunity to help save the world. Instagram photos of a turtle swimming in plastic waste and elephants scavenging through piles of garbage reinforce the message.
"They deserve a cleaner future too!"
What do the experts think of the company's methods?
Magnus Cederlöf, Senior Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of the Environment, laughs when he hears about the Corsair Group.
"As a concept, it sounds strange and far-fetched," Cederlöf says.
Based on current information, he does not consider slow-burn pyrolysis to be a particularly good way to process plastics.
"It consumes a great deal of energy, which of course entails costs. When plastics are converted into oils, they will soon be released into the atmosphere as emissions. It's not a long-term solution or a way to reduce fossil fuel consumption,"Cederlöf says.
He adds that there are other, smarter ways to reuse plastic ecologically, and recycling is always ultimately better for the environment.
According to CEO Saloranta, new partnerships will see Corsair use 100 percent of the oil it produces to make new plastic products in the future.
Corsair will offer its customers its own CSR token, in exchange for them offsetting their plastic footprint. The term is difficult to decipher, but a token is a kind of cryptocurrency unit or digital token.
Saloranta describes it as a digital receipt for the removal of plastic waste from the environment, or plastic credit.
Corsair estimates that there are a few hundred customers and network members in Finland, and just over 40,000 worldwide. The network has been accumulating members since 2018.
Spain-based Therese Rosenberg and UK-based Carey Ravden were among the early investors. It was through a friend that they first learned about offsetting their plastic footprint.
The blockchain was explained to them, and Ravden became enticed by the promise of 30-fold returns.
"I would do anything to help save the planet. It sounded fantastic," says Ravden.
They became excited and invested: Ravden with 6,000 euros and Rosenberg 600 euros. It wasn't long before the problems became apparent.
Rosenberg admits she was blinded by the great idea.
In an email, Jussi Saloranta, who introduced himself as a member of the company's management team, told investors there was a problem with the blockchain. Later, it was revealed that the blockchain, in fact, never worked. Customers were advised by management to exchange the cryptocurrencies they had bought from the company for others. Even those, however, were of little value.
In researching one of the company's executives, Rosenberg discovered that they had been involved in OneCoin.
"I realised how stupid I had been," she says.
Corsair also has corporate customers. One of them agreed to an interview.
A juice bar owner in Amsterdam said he had made up for his plastic footprint by paying 500 euros. He said he believed in the company.
How does virtual currency work?
A virtual currency, or cryptocurrency, is a form of digital money. The currency is not issued by any government or central bank.
Bitcoin is the most well-known virtual currency.
Virtual currencies are valued based on supply and demand, and are created by "mining", i.e. by creating complex algorithms.
Information about transactions is stored in a blockchain, which is a kind of electronic ledger.
Tokens can represent assets or prove ownership of certain rights, and can be digital or electronic.
After the pyramid scheme behind OneCoin was made public, the cryptocurrency finally collapsed. Finns alone invested 40 million euros in the scam. The amount invested globally was in the billions.
Those behind the scam were left to wonder: what happens next?
Two of them, Nattchaphan Sornsirenan and Staffan Libäck, ended up in business together.
The pair founded a company called Orientum. It started out as a real estate venture and a cryptocurrency, but soon things changed.
The company brought on board experts in network marketing and blockchain technology.
One of them was Frank Ricketts, also involved in OneCoin. Ricketts' name appears in court documents relating to the scam.
Also in MOT's possession are internal OneCoin emails that link Sornsirenan, Libäck, and Ricketts to the pyramid scheme. Sornsirenan refrained from answering questions about his connection to OneCoin. MOT requested an interview with Libäck and Ricketts, but neither responded.
Jussi Saloranta was also recruited to the group under the title "real estate advisor". Saloranta is not well-known for his achievements in the field of nature conservation. His background includes real estate, serial entrepreneurship, as well as mixed martial arts marketing.
Furthermore, Saloranta had done business with Libäck in the past. TheirIkaros Group's nightclub project in Thailand was investigated by the police, but no charges were brought.
After bringing in a Thai engineer who had worked for decades developing a pyrolysis process at a company called Sepco, Orientum changed its course. For years, the engineer had been seeking investors to help expand his business.
Saloranta wanted to commercialise the pyrolysis process, and Sornsirenan, Libäck and Ricketts wanted to combine it with network marketing. According to Saloranta, the purpose of the network marketing was to finance new plastic processing plants and sell oil using cryptocurrencies.
Post-Orientum, both the idea and the network that monetises on it have emerged as Cloud Horizon, Ecovo and Amplivo.
Today, Corsair Group has been strongly personified by its CEO. Saloranta's name is inextricably linked to the Corsair's social media posts. The chief executive also regularly takes on the narrator's in the company's advertisements and bulletins.
He often encourages his viewers to take responsibility.
"Let's start by cleaning up our own mess first."
Network member: "We are clearing up this planet"
Network marketing is a big part of Corsair's operations. Network members sell packages that allegedly cover customers' plastic footprint equating to various amounts of years and kilograms. One of the customers to have offset their plastic footprint through Corsair, is a gym operating in the Finnish capital.
There are quite a few long-term members residing in Finland. Finding them, however, is not easy but MOT succeeded in interviewing one of them.
Aino* answers the telephone in Northern Finland. She is a veteran network marketer, in the plastic offsetting business as well as other areas.
Her real identity is concealed, since her role in Corsair's network is small. Aino says that she is particularly worried about the microplastics present both in nature and in people's bodies.
"When watching these [skin conditions] programs from all over the world: What causes the strange abscesses of the Far East? I believe that if the topic was properly researched, it could be concluded that microplastics have an effect on human health," she says.
She adds that sales mainly take place within one's own circle of friends and acquaintances. Representatives can also offer services to companies, but members of the network "don't gallop from door to door like missionaries", Aino adds.
"When we get people involved, we get more plastic processing plants and oil. Our operation is based on the fact that we clean the earth," she tells Yle, but adds that cryptocurrencies also piqued her interest.
"They are the future, even though most Finns don't believe in them," she says.
Aino tells Yle that she offset her plastic footprint four years ago, in 2018. She is thus one of Finland's first independent representatives. However, the last couple of years have been quiet, she notes.
"What happened is that the team changed... Or they say that the company has developed wildly. Now we are talking about Corsair and plastic credits.It is now that the company is heading towards the direction it should be."
Pyramid scheme investigator: "No logic in this"
The employees who were already involved in the founding phase noticed the management's carefree attitude towards the technical aspect of the project. One of them was Austrian Robert Schwertner, who worked as Orientum's blockchain expert.
"Everything revolved around raising money. Nobody cared about technology," he says, adding that he left the company after learning about the management's ties to OneCoin.
Over the years, many other experts and employees have also left the project, such as Nattchapan Sornsirenan, who had been building the network.
The Thai developer of pyrolysis technology never received the money promised to her for the production of new units and thus, stopped working with Cloud Horizon.
MOT also asked technical experts familiar with cryptocurrency to evaluate Corsair's operations.
"Quite a mess. All sorts of things have been grafted into this. The company's website doesn't specify how it verifies that a corresponding amount of plastic has been removed from nature," IT expert Petteri Järvinen commented on Corsair's operations.
He has written a book about OneCoin, which turned out to be a pyramid scheme. Massive crypto scams didn't stop at OneCoin. Cryptocurrencies are commonly-used bait for investment scams these days.
Järvinen added however, that while Corsair's concept may be messy, it is also "brilliant and ingenious" as a business idea, by combining cryptocurrencies with saving the planet.
However, the company's logic still raises a big question, he added.
"Why are tokens and blockchain even needed here? Basically, there is no logic in it, and this is not what is usually done with, for example, carbon compensations," Järvinen says.
Patrik Elias Johansson of the Money Laundering Investigation Unit at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), agrees. Until June, Johansson worked as NBI's digital currency expert.
NBI did not comment on whether Corsair Group was connected to any ongoing or completed criminal investigations.
Italian police say they are currently investigating Corsair Group under suspicion of fraud.
In January, the Italian financial supervision authority Consob ruled Corsair's investment services as unauthorised and blocked access to the website. Consob confirms that the website is still blocked to Italian users.
Thus far, Italian authorities have searched the home of an Italian leading figure of the network, according to a press release. The release also states that police have concluded the network's operations bear characteristics of a pyramid scheme.
Corsair says that it has complained about the actions of the Italian authorities. According to Saloranta, access to the company's website in Italy was blocked hastily and without a compelling enough reason.
Saloranta: "That group shouldn't even be allowed to set up an ice cream stand"
The video call lasts three hours.
Saloranta's long monologue grapples with the history of the company collective, which is not long in terms of years, but has gone through many stages. He admits that when he joined, he knew the OneCoin-related work history of the people. Saloranta itself was not involved in OneCoin.
"I am no longer in business with that group anymore. I've said before that that group shouldn't even be allowed to set up an ice cream stand," he tells Yle.
Saloranta wants to make a clear separation between Corsair Group and its preceding companies. He says that he has not been involved with network marketing, other than through cooperation agreements, that is before 2021 and the purchase of the entire network operation from Ricketts.
"I bought a network marketing activity so that some more than 30,000 members of the network would not suffer a loss."
Saloranta is eager to talk about upcoming significant collaborations, which are supposed to be 'announced this or next month.'
"The easiest way to convince you is when they get announced. Again, Corsair says it has various collaborations in the works. We have a list of major partners on our website. Their number is growing!"
Then Saloranta gets excited. He starts to dig out a file from his computer and hands out the ISCC certificate on the screen. He considers it the company's latest major success.
He says that during the six-month audit, the entire production process and its safety and effects on nature were examined.
"Well, now you're probably asking how do you prove this. 'It's all talk, Jussi, but what do you boys know about anything now.' As a good journalist, of course you do background research on this, so you get a clearer bigger picture."
We have already dug up the information. The certificate was actually issued in April. The ISCC has confirmed the matter.
The certificate proves that it is a waste collection site and a pyrolysis plant, but not how much waste is collected and recycled. It also does not contain information about the tokens offered by the company.
We also enquired Cederlöf of the Ministry of the Environment about the ISCC certificate.
"I am not familiar with the ISCC certificate. I also asked a colleague and they didn't know about it either. The system seems to be quite new and clearly business-oriented," he said.
We go back to the observations made by the MOT assistant in the factory area.
"Our operations take place in the middle of a landfill. It is not a clean or tidy area. This production area has been in use for years. When we took possession of it, it was in very poor condition."
Saloranta says that the factory works around the clock, except during technical problems and maintenance.
"When the device is running and loaded with raw material, there are a handful of people working there. There are 30 employees in total. We get a lot of visitors," he says.
It is indisputable that the companies that preceded Corsair are backed by pyramid scheme swindlers. Saloranta is currently in control of the network marketing business empire built by those people. Yle asked Saloranta about the ties as well as the businessman's own actions in Ikaros and how they in turn affect Corsair's credibility.
"None of these people have any involvement with Corsair. It is the company I founded and I am solely responsible for it. If anyone has a problem with my credibility, well… Elon Musk is also under investigation. If we go to court, the court will decide. Innocent until proven otherwise."
The investigation was completed in collaboration with Columbia University's investigative journalists Marco Dalla Stella, Mathilde Utzon and Sheridan Wall.