UPDATE 6/4
Choice Humanitarian has responded to my email asking if Project Ethereum is related to their organization. It appears that they are paying to be a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility program and are donating 20% of their profits to Choice.

The facebook page has had the reviews double to 112 and the score drop to 3.6. They have also posted something of a response to people calling them a scam:

To be clear, I never indicated that Project Ethereum was doing anything illegal like outright stealing peoples money or making false claims.
They don't have to, the claims they're making about the horrible MLM compensation plan can be perfectly true. This does not mean that using the Ethereum Name and branding isn't deceptive, especially now when cryptocurrencies are just starting to break into the general public's view.
Purpose
Reddit user tim1967 made a post to r/ethereum and r/ethtrader expressing concerns about something called Project Ethereum. Here I talk about what I see and call upon readers to help investigate further.
The Site
Project Ethereum's domain was registered on 04/09/2017 under the registrar FASTDOMAIN, INC. according to the whois lookup. This means that there is no direct information linked to the Project since all contact information leads back to the FASTDOMAIN names and location.
When we look at the site, we notice that they have Choice Humanitarian logos and videos plastered on the front page as well as videos from the Ethereum youtube channel.
The only link that provides any indication about who is behind this project is a facebook group and one person by the name John Johnson. Now, John Johnson, or JoJo as I will now call him, does a miraculous job of writing many words without actually saying anything at all.

John Johnson has been in sales and marketing for the past two decades. John has started many different companies over the years and also spent time as a consultant for small businesses. John was previously working within a Crypto Currency Platform and realized there as a better way to assist members on building ad receiving donations.
John enjoys his business, assisting others, and spending time with his family. Helping others is a huge aspect of Project Ethereum and we hope all of our members spend some time thinking about others. By doing so, they will find success and be able to share it with others.
Diving into the facebook group, we find an impressive 4.9 / 5 star rating with 54 reviews (55 after adding my own). When looking into who wrote these reviews, there are around 25 4 and 5 star ratings that have no comments at all.
So next I looked into our fearless leader JoJo's personal facebook. Now, I'm no CEO, but I don't think I'd find myself saying this if I was..

According to this update, JoJo has gone from Community College to "starting many different companies over the years and also spent time as a consultant for small businesses" in a short 2 years.

JoJo's LinkedIn profile makes no mention of the Ethereum Project.
The Video
Once piece of original promotional material is a 7 minute video that tugs at the heart strings of viewers. Looking into this, it leads back to Project Ethereum's youtube page. The 169 subscribers and 5k views don't help lend any credibility, but the fact that the comments are disabled really is odd..
The video continues and offers to provide beginner cryptocurrency training lessons on mining, wallets, and other basic concepts. Additionally, they offer an amazing forced matrix compensation plan. If you've never heard of this before, check out this link for more info. It's technically not a pyramid scheme. Their eight level deep plan only looks like this:

Youtuber ONE digital COIN has the video Project Ethereum explained, Make money today. where they talk about how 256 members could net you quite a chunk of change. But when faced with criticism on the video, some strange copy / paste action happened between the youtube channel and the presentor, De Waal Carstens:

They do say that great minds think alike, but I'm not sure this is quite what they meant.
I've reached out to Choice Humanitarian asking if they are associated with the project and have yet to hear back. See the 4/6 update.
Conclusion
At this point, I'm about 98% sure this is a scam. There may be some substance behind the cryptocurrency trading information that they offer, but I don't see any legitimate information about the people behind it or their affiliation with Choice Humanitarian.
The use of the Ethereum name is deceptive at best.
Their own video shows logos of Dash, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and others. The use of the Ethereum branding and name when the project is not at all related to the Ethereum Foundation.

They use a lot of buzzwords, tear at our hearts, and offer us the opportunity to be millionaires, but all I see is a scam.
Found this little write up. http://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/project-ethereum-review-2x8-matrix-ether-gifting/
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Excellent write up and conclusion by them. These "scams" are pretty bad alone, but using Ethereum's name so directly misleads many of the massive amount of people just getting into the Ethereum ecosystem.
The use of Choice Humanitarian to validate the project is another low blow, but hopefully Choice is getting that 20% of the profits as per the agreement.
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i am the OP of the original reddit post. John Johnson reached out to me. He is one, either very good or two well intentioned with very naive skills when it comes to crypto. Im thinking its a bit of both but my opinion only.
I sent him a long reply, friendly but still with all my concerns listed in detail to which I have not gotten a reply. I don't believe this to be a straight up scam in a legal or traditional sense. Its an MLM scheme that is old and never works well intentioned or not.
I pointed out they could have actually used the eth network and smart contracts to make the payments fair and public. And that he really should have floated his idea with the eth community. He could have done something really good. He referred to this as my group, which I had to explain is not my anything and that I simply posted my concerns to the eth public community and people responded. This shows his lack of knowledge about Ethereum. It should be concerning to him to have the majority of the community not happy at all with them and that it all could have been avoided if the goal was truly to help with humanitarian work. I also pointed out having the most commonly used names in scams wasn't helping him. His Project rings all the right bells for a scam so this public outcry should not be surprising. It should have been predicted.
He did say that people claiming in posts of earning 4.8 million wasn't right and the have rules about it to which I replied they were not being enforced because I have screen shots and that's why they were banned from nearly every forum I belong to and not by any actions I took. And that should also concern him.
I hope Choice makes some money they do good work from what I can see. I even donated. I certainly don't wish anyone ill. But the bells still ring.
Lesson - MLM and crypto don't mix!
I told him I would update my thoughts publicly and would not be posting reviews or comments anymore on FB. I am not worried about a cease or desist letter... I have said my peace. I also have not received one yet...
He also FB messaged me but in a way I could not respond or see his profile.
My advice is leave it to the Foundation. I don't believe they have any legal grounds on the name but idk I am not a lawyer. They may for using their video but its prob not worth the effort. I think they will fade away like all MLM's do and wither on the vine. Sad to see the name used but it is what it is.
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Thanks for the update. I don't think either of us meant "scam" in any sense more than 1) MLM is a pyramid scheme, and 2) their name is deceptive to newcomers. They should be perfectly within their right to be doing what they are, but so are we when we criticize their project.
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Yeah I agree completely as MLM/Pyramid are scams in my mind regardless of legality. The legal bluster from them is just that I believe. Still never got a reply from him. Which gives me more pause as I was very polite and he told me he was very accessible and would reply soon. They seem to be having tech issues with their launch. I am still glad we got the warning
out i am sure it made some stop and rethink. Thanks again.
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good research!
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MICHAEL MANSFIELD ATTORNEY AT LAW
580 N. Bald Mountain Drive | Alpine, UT 84004 801-368-9676 | [email protected]
June 6, 2017
Re: Project Ethereum
Dear Sir:
I have been retained to represent Project Ethereum and its interests. I am writing this letter because you have published material in a manner which is defamatory and which is meant to interfere with contractual relationships established by Project Ethereum, in particular with Choice Humanitarian. Your statements are not protected “free speech” and are actionable under the law.
Your statements are clearly untrue and are defamatory in nature. They have been without basis in fact and appear to be intentionally made in order to damage my client. Project Ethereum is an authentic and substantial business opportunity designed to benefit people – especially as it provides opportunities for individuals to help and to lift other individuals through its business opportunity, educational offerings and service opportunities through Choice Humanitarian. My client is prepared to protect its reputation by taking any and all steps necessary to deal with the damages caused by your unsubstantiated, untrue, defamatory and slanderous statements. I believe it would be prudent for you to remove any published materials concerning Project Ethereum from any place where you have published those statements, including from social media.
Therefore, demand is herewith made upon you to cease and desist from publishing any defamatory or negative material about Project Ethereum. Further, you must remove anything that you have published that has given cause for this letter. Should you not comply with the demand, Project Ethereum will forthwith file suit against you and seek to obtain a restraining order against you for your unlawful and prohibited defamation and for tortuous interference with business relationships.
Your prompt attention to this matter will be required in order to avoid further legal complications. I trust that you will see the reasonable nature of this request and will comply forthwith.
Sincerely,
Mike Mansfield Attorney at Law
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Yea good luck Mike! Biggest scam cant wait to see how long until members realize they won't get paid! I hope the creators get their ass beat
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