Instead of USDT refunds: Josip Heit issued depreciating APTM tokens to GSPartners victims and forced them to pay fees

Originally presented as a reimbursement for GSPartners victims outside North American settling jurisdictions, this measure has over two years transformed into a frustrating experience of misleading changes and unmet commitments.

Following report on GSPartners victims in settling jurisdictions waiting fourteen months and counting for movement on claims, today BehindMLM examines how Josip Heit screwed victims elsewhere out of refunds.

While refunding North American victims in settling jurisdictions was part of a legally binding settlement, Josip Heit wasn’t under any legal obligation to refund victims elsewhere.

That said, it’s not hard to see why owner Josip Heit dangled the refund carrot in front of GSPartners victims whose regulators had let them down.

The GSPartners North American settlement was reached on September 9th, 2024. At the time, what was left of GSPartners was in shambles.

Читайте также:В Богородске адвоката задержали за посредничество во взятке

GSPartners had collapsed in December 2023 and had been rebooted as GSPro. There was also the messy Billionico and Auratus Gold reboots, both of which were ultimately short-lived failures.

Josip Heit appeared on a GSPartners/GSPro webinar in December 2024, looking like he hadn’t slept for days.

The following month, on January 29th, 2025, Compliance@GSPro sent out an email dangling a refund carrot in front of victims outside of the GSPartners settlement.

U.S. and Canadian customers who are not residents of the settling jurisdictions should seek refunds directly from the company by submitting a request to compliance@gspro.Refunds for residents of settling jurisdictions will be prioritized over refunds for other customers.

And there is no option for U.S. and Canadian customers except to seek a refund—either through AlixPartners or directly from the company.

U.S. and Canadian customers cannot retain their certificates and earn interest or other rewards. If anyone tells you otherwise, do not believe them.

Products offered by GSPro+ and DAO1 will not be available to residents of the United States and Canada. Again, if anyone tells you otherwise, do not believe them.

DAO1 launched in late 2024 as the fifth reboot of GSPartners.

A few months later, in another email sent out on February 27th, 2025, GSPartners victims learned of GSPro+;

At GSP, we’ve always stood by three fundamental values: Education, Patience, and the Consolidation of Technologies. Today, I’m excited to share with you the next evolution of GSP—GSPro+.

GSPro+ turned out to be nothing more than a vehicle to shift GSPartners victims over to DAO1.

If you are in a U.S. and Canadian territory that is not participating in the settlement, or if you live outside the U.S. and Canada, and you would like to check eligibility for refunds, you can make a request directly with compliance@gspro.These requests will be collected over a 90-day period, beginning tomorrow, the 28th of February, and ending on the 1 of June 2025.

Once this 90-day period is closed, the compliance team will then respond and action all eligible requests as quickly and diligently as possible, according to the number of requests made.

These are the only legal processes in place for members checking the eligibility of refund requests in order to facilitate such action.

Additionally, we want to again note that GSPro+ is not available for individuals located in the U.S. or Canada.

If you are in the U.S. or Canada, do not attempt to utilize GSPro+ accounts or platforms.

Again, there was no legal obligation for Heit to offer refunds to GSPartners victims outside of North America. This was an attempt to create the illusion of an in-house parallel refund process outside of the official North American settlement.

If you’re wondering why GSPro+ still existed after DAO1 launched; despite clearly being another centralized reboot controlled by Heit, DAO1 launched under the guise of decentralization through Apertum Foundation.

In effect, Apertum Foundation to DAO1 was what GSB Group was to GSPartners.

So we had DAO1 just recently having been launched, and GSPartners victims given a “legal process” that required to them sign up under DAO1 within set deadlines.

From the same Compliance@GSPro email sent out on February 27th, 2025, ;

Let me walk you through the structured three-phase rollout for our loyal and patient GSP members outside the U.S. and Canada.

The first step in this transition is about ensuring clarity and accuracy. This phase will take place inside the newly updated GSPro+ platform, which is password-protected according to your email and password.

You will have 90 days to carefully review all the information in your member account, including your KYC documents as required in the registration process.

After this period, the information will be locked in as final and agreed upon by the members. This phase will end on 22nd May 2025.

Once Phase 1 is completed, all consolidated services and products will be shown as a Universal Module in the GSPro+ dashboard.

During this phase, all members must set up their DAO1 accounts.

This migration period will last for only 30 days, and all tech and support-related queries must be addressed within this timeframe.

Now comes the most exciting part—the Activation Phase!

In this phase, the consolidated services from GSP (as agreed upon in Phase 1) will be activated.

We encourage all members to take these deadlines seriously, as once a phase is completed, there will be no extensions.

Migration? Activation? It became apparent early on that GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlement weren’t getting refunds as initially represented.

Despite the February 2025 email deadlines, as of September 2025 the GSPartners “refunds” process for non-settlement victims was a mess.

Per an email sent out by “GSPro Support Team” on September 1st, 2025;

As previously announced, GSB Gold Standard Corporation AG, hereinafter GSB Germany, founder Josip Heit, and certain affiliated companies, brands, and platforms have agreed to settlement terms with regulators.

All users must participate in this phase, and need to log in to their respective account via the GSPro+ dashboard to migrate their account to the DAO1 platform.

I want to make it absolutely clear that the GSPro+ in-house refund process had nothing to do with the North American GSPartners settlement.

GSPartners victims in the North American settlement jurisdictions were required to submit claims to third-party AlixPartners. GSPro+, migration to DAO1, deadlines, KYC etc. – this was all an artificial narrative created by or under the direction of Heit.

That said, details of the refunds being offered to GSPartners victims outside of the settlement were explicitly laid out in the September 2025 email;

Please note, If you choose the full refunds option, the refunds will be sent using USDT – ERC20 automatically after you successfully claim it in your DAO1 dashboard.

Make sure you have ETH to cover the transaction fees.

A “full refund” which presumably mirrored what GSPartners victims in settling jurisdictions were getting; the USD equivalent in tether (USDT), of all funds invested into GSPartners dating back to 2021 minus any withdrawals.

“GSPro Compliance Team” sent out an email on September 7th, 2025, reiterating the above “full refunds option”.

The following month, on November 1st, 2025, “GSPro Compliance” sent out an email that conflated the GSPartners North American settlement with the GSPro+ in-house “full refunds” offer.

Dear community,

We hope this message finds you well.

As previously announced, GSB Gold Standard Corporation AG, hereinafter GSB Germany, founder Josip Heit, and certain affiliated companies, brands, and platforms have agreed to settlement terms with regulators.

This means that all users must participate in this phase, and need to log in to their respective account via the GSPro+ dashboard to migrate their account to the DAO1 platform before December 02, 2025.

Again, the GSPartners North American settlement has nothing to do with any refund offer Heit had made to victims outside of settlement jurisdictions. This is a pretty blatant misrepresentation on Heit’s part.

Migrate your GSPro+ to DAO1:

This phase is the final step, where you can:

• Review, claim a full refunds, product, or inventory.

• Activate.

Please note that failure to migration before the expiration date may result in certain benefits being inaccessible.

In December 2025, GSPartners victims outside of the settlement who’d jumped through the GSPro+ and DAO1 hoops received emails requesting verification.

Per one such email sent out by “Gold Standard Bank Settlement” on December 11th, 2025;

This message serves as an official notice regarding your involvement in the Gold Standard Bank (GSB) Settlement Program.

Following an internal compliance audit and settlement review, your account has been classified as eligible for reimbursement under the Refund Settlement Procedure (RSP).

To proceed, please log in to GSPro+ account for verification.

Your submission will undergo a formal verification process conducted by the Settlement Compliance Team.

No service fees, administrative charges, or activation payments are required to receive your refund. Any request for payment should be considered unauthorized.

If you require assistance, please contact the Gold Standard Bank Settlement Desk.

The deception was pretty blatant at this point. Despite the name, the “Gold Standard Bank (GSB) Settlement Program” was not and had nothing to do with the North American GSpartners settlement.

The GSPro+ in-house refunds process was not and never was a legally binding settlement.

Things were quiet for six months, after which the deception continued – this time directly implicating AlixPartners with the GSPro+ in-house “full refunds” offer.

From a May 25th, 2026 email sent out by “GSPro+ Support”;

Dear GSPro Members,

As previously announced, we are pleased to officially inform you that affected balances, displayed values, refunds records, and commission calculations within the system have been thoroughly reviewed, corrected, synchronized, and fully resolved.

Following the recent platform transition and restructuring process conducted by us and AlixPartners, eligible members are able to proceed with one of the available options about their GSPro+ balances and migration status.

AlixPartners was appointed to process refund claims as part of the North American settlement. It never had anything to do with the GSPro+ in-house settlement.

GSPro+ Support’s May 25th, 2026 email laid out “full refund process” options to GSPartners victims (who keep in mind had been jumping through hoops for a year and a half at this point);

Available Options

1. Refunds Option:

You may choose to accept a refunds directly to your available balance in your DAO1 dashboard. Once accepted, the refunds amount will be reflected and processed according to the current refunds procedures available inside the platform.

2. DAO1 Transfer Option:

You may alternatively choose to transfer your GSPro+ balance into the DAO1 ecosystem. Under this option, your balance will be migrated, synchronized, and integrated into your DAO1 account in accordance with the active migration framework and platform policies.

Kindly note that completion of this step is essential to finalize your account status and proceed with the applicable refunds or balance transition process.

The next update GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlements received was on June 19th;

Dear GSPro Members,

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the more than 34,000+ users who have successfully received refunds and completed the migration of their accounts.

Once again, for users who have not yet completed this process, we kindly remind you to submit your refunds claim or finalize the migration of your GSPro account no later than July 1, 2026.

BehindMLM is unaware of any GSPartners victims receiving “full refunds” as promised. The language in the June 19th email is also suss, with “refunds” and “migration” presented as a single combined action.

Up until this point, despite forced migration to DAO1, “full refunds” in USDT had always been presented as a “get your money and walk away” option (see May 25th, 2026 email above).

On June 29th, “GSPro+ Team” sent out another email;

We are pleased to provide an update regarding the ongoing refund and account migration process.

To date, more than 41,000+ users have successfully received their refunds and completed the migration of their accounts.

For users who have not yet completed this process, we kindly remind you to submit your refunds claim or finalize the migration of your GSPro account no later than July 1, 2026 below.

Again, BehindMLM is not aware of a single “full refund” being paid out to GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlement.

What we can confirm is, on June 23rd, 2026, top GSPartners promoter and DAO1/Apertum Foundation insider Andrew Eaton claimed GSPartners refunds weren’t happening.

The only solution that we can have guys, from a regulatory point of view, is the day that GSP[artners] pays out people on what they were told is a security, is the day that everything closes down again day one.

Instead of “full refunds”, Eaton presented the “work around” reality GSPartners victims were facing;

So what is the work around? It’s to give people like for like products to make sure they get wealthy on the other side.

This is a true wealth creation tool. This is way more powerful than your certificates.

To fully understand Eaton’s “work around” statement, additional context is needed.

Across June 12th to 14th, Apertum Foundation held a “Asia Hustle” DAO1 marketing event in Hong Kong.

In the days leading up to the event, Apertum Foundation insider Bruce Hughes announced significant changes to DAO1.

Existing investment plans within DAO1 were being left open (with a big question mark on future “SmartBot” trading bot ROI payments), however the MLM side of the scheme and new investment was terminated as of June 15th.

At the Asia Hustle event, Apertum Foundation announced Apertum DAO (aka APTM DAO). APTM DAO is a continuation of a “MinerBot” unregistered APTM token investment scheme that originated within DAO1.

Several GSPartners promoters from North American settling jurisdictions were present at the Asia Hustle event, in apparent violation of the North American settlement – but that’s a whole separate issue.

When Andrew Eaton told GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlement they’d be receiving “like for like products” instead of “full refunds”, he was referring to APTM DAO “MinerBot” investment plans.

The “full refunds in USDT” GSPartners victims outside of the settlement had been offered, was now a confirmed bait and switch.

I can’t confirm but I suspect the “41,000+ users have successfully received their refunds” are in fact GSPartners victims who “migrated” to DAO1 and received “MinerBot” investment positions.

“MinerBot” positions saw DAO1 promoters invest USDT on the promise of a passive return, paid out in APTM token. This is managed through NFT positions, through which Apertum Foundation determines verifies investment and determines who to pay APTM “MinerBot” returns to.

Understandably, some GSPartners victims are cashing out received APTM tokens as soon as they receive them.

Despite making the best of the bait and switch they’d found themselves in, in his June 23rd webinar Eaton egregiously referred to these victims as “stupid”.

As a South African insider who followed Heit over from Karatbars International, Eaton is likely to have easily covered any GSPartners losses through MLM recruitment.

Eaton’s frustration stems from him not wanting to cash out his own APTM tokens until it reaches a “six figure” value. APTM is currently sitting at around 12 cents, down 27% month on month.

The latest on the “full refunds in USDT” bait and switch is a “MinerBot update” pushed out on July 3rd.

This update, which appears to tie into a purported new KYC system, is taking place through “miners.apertum.io” and “app.dao.ai”. These domains appear to currently be blocking US residents by IP, so where US investors outside of settling jurisdictions stand with respect to promised “full refunds” is even more opaque.

Bruce Hughes, who is in Sri Lanka after the Asia Hustle event, cited unspecified “jurisdiction issues” as to why DAO1 had been gutted to create APTM DAO.

[11:03] Going forward, you will manage your miners from miners.apertum.io.

The mining product, the mining NFT, the mining smart-contracts are all being updated. They will no longer be housed through DAO1.

DAO1 is being separated from the mining product because of jurisdictional reasons.

The mining product is a fantastic global that’s getting an incredible update, and so we want to remove it from the silo, the housing, the brand of DAO1.

And so the never-ending GSPartners “full refunds” bait and switch nightmare continues.

Eighteen months from when GSPartners, as GSPro, announced “full refunds” for investors outside of the North American settlement, there is not one publicly confirmed instance of an investment refund being paid out.

Fourteen months on from the North American GSPartners settlement claim submission deadline, victims who submitted a claim still haven’t even received claim determinations.

Prior to the North American settlement in September 2024, GSPartners claimed it had “over 800,000 investors” and was “close to completing $1 billion in transactions”.

Dating back to GSPartners’ launch in 2021, that money remains unaccounted for. 

Update 9th July 2026 – As of July 5th, GSB, as GSPro+, is still begging investors to “migrate” over to its in-house refund scam. Worse still, investors have to pay a fee.

GSPro+ Support Team sent out the following email on July 5th (note “refund” is now synonymous with migrating over to the new unregistered investment scheme);

We sincerely thank the thousands of members who have already completed their refund claims and successfully migrated their accounts. Your cooperation and timely participation have been instrumental in advancing this initiative and ensuring a smooth transition.

Recognizing that some eligible members have encountered unforeseen personal or technical circumstances that prevented them from completing the process within the previously announced timeframe, GSB has conducted a comprehensive review of the requests received.

Following this review, GSB has approved a final extension of the Refund Claim and Account Migration Program.

The current migration deadline is July 15th, 2026. Note as we’re now eighteen months in on the in-house refund scam, that date doesn’t mean much.

GSPro+ Support Team had this to say to GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlement who don’t opt in to continue being defrauded;

Members are advised that any eligible refund entitlement or account balance that remains unclaimed after 15 July 2026 may be treated as forfeited in accordance with applicable laws, regulatory obligations, and the governing terms and conditions of the Refund Claim and Account Migration Program.

Again I have to point out there are no laws, regulatory obligations or governing terms and conditions for the in-house settlement scheme.

This is all made-up as part of the in-house settlement, which is increasingly being misrepresented to mimic the actual legally binding North American settlement (which is subject to actual legal repercussions, regulatory obligations per the settlement term sheet conditions).

On GSPartners victims outside of the North American settlement having to pay fees;

Refund claims and account migration are processed through the DAO1 platform using the Ethereum blockchain.

Before initiating your claim, please verify that your designated wallet contains a sufficient amount of ETH (Ethereum) to cover the required blockchain network gas fees.

Attaching fees to a refund request is one of the hallmarks of a classic recovery scam. The FTC classifies recovery scams as “the worst of the worst“.