Inside Legacy: the MLM that thrives in secrecy
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Behind diamond emojis, business conferences and the quest for ‘financial freedom’ lies a multi-level-marketing scheme shrouded in secrecy. Janhavi Gosavi spoke to former members of the Legacy programme in Wellington who were drawn in by promises of ‘retire by 30’.
This feature was made with the support of the Auckland Radio Trust, sponsors of the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund.
Your friend from high school is being weird on Instagram. They were never big on posting but now their page is littered with diamond emojis, claims about investing in themselves and manifestations of financial freedom.
They pose with mentors you didn’t know they had, wearing suits you’ve never seen them in before, talking about a side hustle they will not name.
You see group photos of them at a business conference in Melbourne, with a receipt-length caption about “becoming free from the 9-5 grind”, so you click on the tagged accounts.
All of them have words like “legacy”, “entrepreneur” and “freedom” in their bios. They all attend the same events, parrot the same inspirational quotes and post the same perfectly edited reels.
What’s going on?
Introducing Legacy Leadership, often referred to as just Legacy by its members. The name Legacy is very popular in New Zealand business and mentoring. There’s the Legacy Builders Program, offering a “step by step program to maximise profits”, the Pacific-focused Legacy Leadership Symposium, or Destiny Church’s Legacy Sisterhood programme. Legacy Leadership Ltd, though, is a multi-level marketing company shrouded in secrecy.
The name Legacy doesn’t appear on any of its members’ posts, nor does any other company name.
The Avon ladies and Tupperware parties operated in broad daylight. The Juice Plus and Enagic huns will tell you what they sell and how to join them.
You don’t pick Legacy – Legacy picks you.
The approach
Milan Singh is a brown man in his early 20s who frequents the gym. When Singh was 21, a man he didn’t know but had mutual friends with started replying to his Instagram stories. The messages began friendly but soon became more business-like. Singh says he would post a random picture and would receive messages from the man like “where do you see yourself in five to ten years?”
Singh started watching the man’s Instagram stories too. The man wore nice suits and attended business conferences. Two weeks after the first message, the man offered Singh entry into a business mentoring programme where entrepreneurs would give advice about escaping the world of the “nine to five”.
“I was like man, that sounds fucking awesome. At the time, I hated my shitty job,” Singh remembers. “As a person in my last year of uni, I was like man I’m skint. I’m out of money.”
Singh ended up in a Zoom call, which he describes as being like a job interview, with the man and the man’s mentor. He says he spotted three red flags during the call.
Red flag one: the mentor talked about how the man that had been recruiting Singh was 22 years old and getting ready to retire by age 30 but Singh remembers “they couldn’t tell me what it was that was making the money, they couldn’t tell me what it was that was helping them escape the nine-to-five lifestyle”.
Red flag two: the mentor asked if Singh wanted to get his partner into the programme as well. Singh says he was told Legacy empowered couples who wanted to own a home and retire together. It sounded like a great thing but he also felt like they were just trying to get more people on board – a “two-for-one sort of deal”.
Red flag three: Singh was instructed to read the personal finance book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and report back to the mentor with his learnings.
After the meeting, Singh researched Kiyosaki, an American businessman, and found he’d filed for bankruptcy, had endorsed and co-authored books with Donald Trump, and is the subject of multiple investigative documentaries. “Why am I being recommended a book by a guy who literally doesn’t have any fucking money?”
Singh told the mentor he didn’t want to pursue the programme and blocked them.
Since then, Singh has been approached two more times by Legacy members in separate efforts to recruit him.
Read more https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/14-10-2025/inside-legacy-the-mlm-that-thrives-in-secrecy
Content retrieved from: https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/14-10-2025/inside-legacy-the-mlm-that-thrives-in-secrecy.
