Mother of Mercy, Could this be the End of Amway?

By David Brear, Guide to the Amway Labyrinth:


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‘It is my opinion that the Amway business is run in a manner that is parallel to that of major organized crime groups, in particular the Mafia. The structure and function of major organized crime groups, generally consisting of enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, was the prototype forming the basis of federal and state legislation that I have been involved in drafting. The same structure and function, with associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, is found in the Amway business.’

Professor G. Robert Blakey (b. 1936)

‘Every time Europe looks across the Atlantic to see the American eagle, it observes only the rear end of an ostrich.’

H.G. Wells (1866-1946)

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To the eternal shame of the United States of America, for more than 50 years, successive grinning generations of the ‘Amway’ mob have been permitted to build a mind-numbing labyrinth of legally-registered corporate structures (pursuing lawful, and/or unlawful, activities) in order to peddle a fake ‘Business Opportunity’ which they (and their bleating flock of apologists) steadfastly pretend to be authentic. During this period, tens of millions of individuals around the globe (arbitrarily defined as ‘Independent Business Owners’) have been gradually churned through an ongoing closed-market swindle and associated advanced fee fraud. However, a significant minority (usually with access to independent funds) have had their minds hijacked by a typical totalitarian perversion of traditional, dualistic (‘positive versus negative’), ritual belief systems. Although these unquestioning core-adherents were manipulated by their existing beliefs and instinctual desires (giving them the illusion that they were making a free-choice), they were, in fact, subjected to co-ordinated, devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion designed to facilitate the shutting down of an individual’s critical, and evaluative, faculties without his/her fully-informed consent. In this way, the worst-case ‘Amway’ victims have been (effectively) coerced into dissipating all their mental, physical and financial resources to the benefit of self-proclaimed ‘Multilevel Marketing’ gurus whom they continued to trust and follow no matter what suffering this entailed. An unknown number of de facto ‘Amway’ slaves have killed themselves. Only a handful of the numerous core-group survivors have refused to be intimidated, and/or bought off, and become whistle blowers. Major criminal organizations were identified by federal legislators 40 years ago (when extended criminal penalties, and powerful civil remedies, were provided to hold their bosses to account). Yet federal prosecutors have (so far) done nothing to prevent the ‘Amway’ mob, and their associate enterprises, from amassing billions of stolen dollars. Indeed, certain leading US political figures and law enforcement agents have enthusiastically assisted in protecting the group’s kitsch front and obstructed full exposure of the pernicious racket that lurks behind it. Tellingly, the sanctimonious rulers of the ‘Amway’ mob have invested some of their ill-gotten gains to infiltrate, and corrupt, traditional culture to a degree which makes even the most notorious ‘Mafia Bosses’ look like a bunch of amateurs. It is no wonder that they continue to grin from ear to ear.

On September 6th 1949 (along with Michael Pacetti), two hitherto-unremarkable USAAF veterans of Dutch Protestant origin, Richard De Vos (aged 23) and Jay Van Andel (aged 25), registered the ‘Ja-Ri Corporation.’ However, this (apparently independent) enterprise was wholly the agent of another one, the ‘Nutrilite Products Company Inc.’

‘Nutrilite’ was (to say the least) a highly-controversial trademark owned by a certain Carl F. Rehnborg a.k.a. ‘Dr.’ Rehnborg, a one-time penniless toothpaste salesman of German origin who’d acquired a considerable fortune by reinventing himself as an ordinary man turned selfless capitalist superman – a visionary autodidactic nutritionist, chemist, and industrialist who had not only invented a miraculous means of saving mankind from malnutrition and sickness, but also a miraculous ‘New Business System’ (based on the Christian-inspired principle of helping others to succeed) capable of bringing anyone freedom, prosperity and happiness. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Enforcement, who challenged the authenticity of Rehnborg (and his de facto associate enterprises) in the federal courts during two decades, privately knew him to be nothing more than the leader of a little gang of absurd charlatans (protected by an aggressive echelon of convincing attorneys) who’d combined, and updated, the medicine show and Ponzi scheme to reflect the spirit of the age. However, Rehnborg (who posed as the innocent victim of big government) almost certainly suffered from severe and inflexible Narcissistic Personality Disorder. According to the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,’ NPD has nine recognised diagnostic criteria (five of which are required for a diagnosis):

· has a grandiose sense of self-importance
· is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, ideal love, etc.
· believes that he/she is special and unique and can only be understood by other special people.
· requires excessive admiration.
· strong sense of self-entitlement.
· takes advantage of others to achieve his/her own ends.
· lacks empathy.
· is often envious or believes that others are envious of him/her.
· arrogant disposition.

Tellingly, the authorized (‘Amway’ ) version of Rehnborg’s life sounds like a thrilling comic-book yarn written by L. Ron Hubbard:

In 1915, Rehnborg (aged 25) voyaged to China on business. After 12 years of living in the Far East (where he witnessed ‘mass-starvation’ and survived starvation himself whilst besieged in Shanghai by supplementing his diet with an improvised ‘vitamin and mineral-enriched broth made from grasses, powdered limestone, animal bones, rusty nails,’ etc.) Rehnborg sailed across the Pacific and landed on the West Coast of the USA. Despite having no money, he managed to establish a research laboratory in his modest loft-apartment on California’s Balboa Island. Assisted by his dutiful wife (Edith), Rehnborg then dedicated 6 years of his life to develop a ‘Revolutionary New Food Supplement.’ He first naively tried to give his secret formula away, but the cynical world wasn’t interested. So, in 1934, he reluctantly decided to create ‘California Vitamins Inc.’ In 1939, Rehnborg moved his ‘Business’ to a ‘Manufacturing and Processing Facility’ in Buena Park, California, and created the ‘Nutrilite Products Company Inc.’ By 1947, acting in association with a ‘Network Sponsoring Company’, ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ (to whom he’d sold ‘National Exclusive Nutrilite Distribution Rights’) Rehnborg (aged 57) had created the ‘World’s First Multilevel Marketing Scheme.’ Starting from nothing, he had become an admired and respected millionaire by ‘Helping thousands of Americans to start their own Businesses.’

There is no reason to doubt that Rehnborg (who worked as a commercial agent for Colgate &Co) was in China during, and after, WW I. Whilst the various exciting episodes in his oriental odyssey (although highly implausible) can be neither proved nor disproved, the truth about Rehnborg’s convoluted ‘Rags to Riches’ American fairy-tale is an entirely different matter. Perhaps its just a coincidence, but in 1934 — less than 12 months after the world’s most blood-thirsty vegetarian, Adolf Hitler, had established his ‘National Socialist’ Utopia — Rehnborg (aged 44) created ‘California Vitamins Inc.’, to manufacture and distribute what he arbitrarily defined as the ‘World’s First Multi-Mineral/Multivitamin Plant-Based Food Supplement - a Unique Combination of Vitamins and Minerals in a Special Base.’ At first, this so-called ‘Health Tonic’ was produced and peddled (in private) by Rehnborg himself in insignificant quantities. Consequently, it slipped past regulators. However, anyone with an ounce of common sense could immediately tell that his ‘invention’ was just another inert potion (in the absurd tradition of the medicine show); a random mixture of cheaply-procured common substances with an unjustifiable price tag. It had probably taken Rehnborg 6 hours to concoct, not 6 years. Up to 1939, Rehnborg avoided the attention of government agents. He relied only word of mouth to sustain and expand his little game of scientific make-believe. Then (apparently after discovering the well-known advertising maxim, ‘if you want to hide something: make as big as you possibly can’), Rehnborg suddenly changed the name of his game to the technical-sounding ‘Nutrilite Products Company Inc.’ and he moved his quackery onto an almost unprecedented scale. Soon, he was legally employing dozens of white-coated workers in purpose-built industrial, and laboratory, buildings in Buena Park, California. He also acquired some farmland near to Hemet in the San Jancinto valley, but it is unclear exactly where he found all the necessary capital.

To casual observers, Rehnborg’s collection of new props looked like any other lawful enterprise. His staff were rational and honest folk whose own innocence brought credibility. At this time, Rehnborg rechristened his ‘invention’, ‘Double X (a.k.a. ‘XX’) Supplement.’ He now proposed to offer Californians two ‘complimentary products’ in one box - a jar of red ‘Multivitamin Capsules’ and a packet of bluish green ‘Multi-Mineral Pills.’ The whole package was deliberately designed to look pure and scientific (like a proprietary medicine), but, tellingly, the price was fixed at just less than $20 a box (the equivalent of several hundred dollars today). Rehnborg claimed that the ‘XX’ brand-name was derived from the Roman numeral representing twenty. Interestingly, it could also be read as ‘double cross.’ When the deluded former toothpaste salesman’s pretty products were routinely analysed by qualified scientists at the FDA, it was discovered that (although they contained essentially what it said on the labels and were quite harmless) ‘XX Supplement’ really did mostly comprise a random (but precisely measured) mixture of cheaply-procured, common substances (yeast, minerals and dried vegetable extracts: alfalfa; parsley; watercress; etc.). FDA experts later estimated that ‘XX Supplement’ cost no more than a few cents a box to produce. Thus, FDA lawyers knew that Rehnborg was, in fact, using authentic pharmaceutical equipment to fabricate a placebo, labelling it as a ‘Health Tonic’ (a meaningless term) and peddling it at a huge mark up (at least 1000%). This crack-pot pseudo-scientific swindle, which was tantamount to selling a bedazzling amalgam of valueless base-metals for the price of pure gold, might have been quickly nipped in the bud simply by charging Rehnborg with fraud. Apparently, prosecutors never considered the possibility that they might be dealing with someone with severe psychological problems and whose own inflexible delusions were contagious. Instead, they felt obliged to take no action; reasoning that, by truthfully listing the banal ingredients, but avoiding making any specific therapeutic claims, on his packaging, Rehnborg had found a loophole in federal laws concerning the criminal misbranding of medicines. As a result, an updated version of an age-old fiction was permitted to be mass-marketed as fact. Unfortunately, the lack of any rigorous official challenge only brought its author more credibility. Not surprisingly, a host of copy-cat ‘Health Tonic’ scams quickly sprang up.

As WWII drew to its close, ‘XX Supplement’ had lost its novelty, so Rehnborg (aged 55) acquired two well-chosen associates who resembled favorite uncles, Lee S. Mytinger and William S. Casselberry (described by FDA officials as a ‘cemetery-plot salesman’ and a ‘psychologist’). The result was ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.,’ a second (apparently independent) corporate structure peddling ‘Exclusive Commission-Agency Rights’ to ‘Distribute XX Supplement’ using (what was first defined by the company’s owners as) a ‘New Business Model.’ In theory… you could try to sell ‘XX Supplement’ to your social contacts for a small profit, but, if you wanted to make big money, you didn’t need to sell anything… you could buy a monthly quota of ‘XX Supplement’ yourself and sign-up your social contacts to do the same… your ‘Sponsored Recruits’ would then ‘Sponsor’ their own social contacts, etc., ‘compensation’ would automatically multiply in an infinitely-expanding geometric progression. ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ offered a mind-numbing ‘contract’ in which the ‘company’ undertook to pay its ‘Independent Distributors’ an escalating ‘monthly commission’ on the totality of their escalating ‘Business Volume’ [i.e. their own regular monthly purchases (defined as ‘Sales’), added to the regular monthly purchases (defined as ‘Sales’) of their ‘Sponsored Recruits’, and those of the recruits of their recruits, etc. etc. ad infinitum].

In reality, the new set-up was merely another chapter of Rehnborg’s typical, narcissistic fantasies, but to casual observers ‘Nutrilite Products Company Inc.’ appeared to be exclusively manufacturing for, and wholesaling ‘XX Supplement’ to, ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.,’ whose commission agents, in turn, appeared to be retailing it to the public. Although ‘XX Supplement’ was presented as an ‘Exclusive, Unique and Secret Formula’ which couldn’t be found in drug stores, its constituents could easily be found at a tiny fraction of their fixed assembled-price. To anyone with an ounce of common sense, Rehnborg’s products were (effectively) worthless and impossible to sell on the open market. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of final customers were the non-salaried agents of the second corporate structure, which itself was the sole customer and agent of the first corporate structure. In order for them to maintain the false hope that if they signed-up further contributing participants they would eventually become rich, the participants in this camouflaged money game were obliged by its rules to hand over a regular payment to Mytinger and Casselberry to be shared with Rehnborg. From all points of view (medical, economic, legal, etc.), ‘XX Supplement’ might have well not existed. New converts were supplied with a $49.50 ‘Business Kit’ (i.e. a large cardboard box stuffed with a month’s supply of ‘XX Supplement’ and a fat folder containing page after page of mystifying pseudo-economic/medical presentations and diagrams, and instructions in how to go about remembering, contacting and recruiting everyone they’d ever known during their lives). These presentations contained the concrete evidence which FDA lawyers would later use to take action. Contributing participants were being instructed to smile, project enthusiasm, and to recite a precisely-worded script which proclaimed ‘Nutrilite XX Supplement’ to be ‘good value,’ because it could ‘cure or prevent,’ virtually any known human illness.

Even though it wasn’t his area of responsibility, FDA Legal Counsel (1939- 1972), William H. Goodrich, was probably the first US law enforcement agent to deduce that the innocent baby that Rehnborg, Mytinger and Casselberry had baptised a ‘New Business Model’ (later to become known as: ‘Multilevel Marketing’) was actually the same old delinquent previously known as ‘pyramid selling.’ Again, anyone with an ounce of common sense could work out immediately that, since Rehnborg was a medical alchemist, the strong likelihood was that Mytinger and Casselberry were economic alchemists. The dubious trio were obviously acting in association, but, unfortunately, agents of the FDA and those of the FTC and FBI acted independently. However, in the late 1940s, the rapidly-expanding ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ dossier was already in the hands of prosecutors. Apparently, they still never considered the possibility that they might be dealing with persons with severe psychological problems and whose own inflexible delusions were contagious. Instead, they still felt obliged to take no action; this time reasoning that, by arbitrarily defining illegal internal payments as ‘Sales,’ Mytinger and Casselberry had found a loophole in federal laws concerning pyramid scams and Ponzi schemes. As a result, another updated version of an age-old fiction was permitted to be mass-marketed as fact. Yet again, the lack of any rigorous official challenge only brought its authors more credibility. Not surprisingly, a host of copy-cat swindles (camouflaged by banal, but pricey, products) quickly sprang up.

By 1947, Rehnborg, Mytinger and Casselberry were steadfastly pretending ‘15 000 Successful Distributorships across the USA,’ with ‘Sales’ totalling ‘$500 000 dollars per month.’ They had also organized the production of a ‘Free’ booklet, ‘How to Get Well and Stay Well,’ in which they further pretended that ‘Nutrilite Double X Supplement’ had ‘cured or greatly helped such common ailments’ as : ‘Low blood pressure, Ulcers, Mental depression, Pyorrhoea, Muscular twitching, rickets, Worry over small things, Tonsillitis, Hay Fever, Sensitivity to noise, Underweight, Easily tired, Gas in stomach, Cuts heal slowly, Faulty vision, Headache, Constipation, Anaemia Boils, Flabby tissues, Hysterical tendency, Eczema, Overweight, Faulty memory, Lack of ambition, Certain Bone conditions, Nervousness, Nosebleed, Insomnia, Allergies, Asthma, Restlessness, Bad skin colour, Poor appetite, Biliousness, Neuritis, Night blindness, Migraine, High blood pressure, Sinus trouble, Lack of concentration, Dental caries, Irregular heartbeat, Colitis, Craving for sour foods, Arthritis, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Deafness, Subject to colds.’

Rehnborg now played the wise paternal role of ‘Scientific Adviser’ to ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ He toured the USA preaching the gospel to crowds of unquestioning admirers — ‘for less than $20 a month, Nutrilite XX Supplement’ was the ‘Answer to Man’s Search for Health.’ After both companies’ owners were approached by FDA officials and warned that they could face criminal prosecution for misbranding, their lawyers promised that the booklet would be ‘revised.’ Specific therapeutic claims were supposed to be eliminated. ‘All illnesses’ suddenly became a ‘state of nonhealth’ produced by ‘chemical imbalance’.… ‘Nutrilite XX Supplement’ cured nothing, it merely ‘enabled people to Get Well and stay Well’ by themselves. However, pages 41-52 of the comic-book still recounted alleged case-histories explaining that ‘Nutrilite brought relief from such ailments as diabetes, feeblemindedness, stomach pains, sneezing and weeping.’ Not surprisingly, FDA officials were not impressed, so, in 1948, they finally launched a co-ordinated plan of raids, and seizures of ‘Nutrilite XX Supplement’ and associated publications, with the intention of forcing the counterfeit ‘company’ to close down or go to trial.

In 1951, after a series of protracted lawsuits, appeals and countersuits (in which Mytinger and Casselberry hid behind slick attorneys who cleverly manipulated one conservative judge’s existing beliefs by portraying their clients as freedom-loving American entrepreneurs being unjustly attacked by jealous bureaucrats with sinister hidden motives), the FDA eventually obtained (on behalf of the people) a permanent Supreme Court injunction against ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ preventing ‘Distributors’ from referring to 50 publications making false claims about ‘Health Tonics and Food Supplements’ (including various ‘Revised Editions’ of ‘How to Get Well and Stay Well’). FDA lawyers proved Mytinger and Casselberry to have lied on oath when they testified to the Supreme Court that no further false claims were being made. FDA agents had, in fact, infiltrated the organization (as potential recruits) and recorded deluded proselytizers chanting the same cure-all mantra about ‘XX Supplement.’ Fearing that their monopoly of information might be lost, in 1954, Rehnborg, Mytinger and Casselberry produced a kitsch 20 minute colour propaganda film, ‘From The Ground Up’ (featuring themselves as three ordinary guys turned philanthropic farmers, scientists and industrialists), and they began to publish their own propaganda magazine, ‘Nutrilite News’ (stuffed with kitsch colour photos of happy, healthy and wealthy ‘Distributors’). At this time, more than ‘80 000 Distributorships’ conducting Multi-Million Dollar ‘Total Annual Sales’ were being claimed in the USA, whilst flag-waving ‘Rallies and Seminars’ (addressed by clean-cut, young ‘Christian Distributors’ like Rich De Vos and Jay Van Andel) were regular events. Yet, no independent quantifiable evidence was ever produced to prove what percentage of so-called ‘Nutrilite Sales’ were authentic retail transactions, or how many people who signed a ‘contract’ with ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ actually received an overall material benefit from the operation of what its instigators arbitrarily defined as an ‘Independent Business.’ Excluding the tiny percentage of grinning schills at the top of the pyramid, the rolling failure-rate was 100% . Already tens of thousands of Americans were being churned through the pyramid’s base annually. Since there was (effectively) no external revenue, participants were actually buying infinite shares in their own finite money. Mysteriously, the FTC’s only visible interest in ‘Mytinger and Casselberry Inc.’ came as a result of complaints by a rival company alleging breaches in civil laws concerning restraint of trade. Tellingly, even though they were defined in their contracts as ‘Independent Business Owners,’ unpaid proselytizers for ‘Nutrilite’ were forbidden (on pain of unilateral termination of their contracts) to offer any other brand of products.

In 1959, when it seemed that ‘Mytinger and Casselberry/Nutrilite Products Inc.’ might finally be shut down (under the ‘Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act 3381-3383’, rather than anti-pyramid scams legislation) De Vos and Van Andel created the ‘American Way Association’ (soon rechristened ‘Amway’) - the first of what was to become a shoal of red, white and blue herrings. Indeed, countless, de facto associate enterprises continue to be created, dissolved and subverted. Cheekily, the ‘Nutrilite’ company was itself absorbed into the ‘Amway’ labyrinth in the early 1970s. For more than half a century, this shifty edifice has successfully prevented, and/or diverted, investigation of an ongoing criminal organization and isolated its beneficiaries from liability.

The Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act (enacted by section 901 [a.] of the Organized Crime Control Act) is a United States federal law which (in theory) provides extended criminal penalties for, and powerful civil remedies against, the leaders and agents of ongoing criminal organizations and their de facto associate enterprises. In the early 1960s, after Robert Kennedy was appointed Attorney General, the US Dept. of Justice was given a significant role in a co-ordinated national ‘Strike Force,’ established under the direction of the Inspector General of the US Dept. of Labor. This new initiative was the product of an overt joint-congressional policy to hold the leaders of major organized crime groups to account, as well as dismantle their webs of corrupt political figures, judges, attorneys, trade union officials, senior law enforcement agents, etc. Sadly, the long-time Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover is now known to have been under the influence of racketeers (who were certainly bribing, and probably blackmailing, him).
Despite a growing mountain of conclusive evidence, for decades it was the official policy of the FBI to deny the existence of the ‘Mafia’ and ‘National Crime Syndicate.’ Yet, the average American knew full-well that a pernicious, criminal underworld had been steadily gnawing its way into traditional culture since the federal government had foolishly passed an unenforceable law prohibiting the sale of alcohol (1919-1933), and (effectively) handed a multi-billion dollar industry, and half billion dollar source of tax-revenue, to hitherto small-time gangsters. However, although the Democratic administration’s will to protect US citizens was apparently hardened by the assassinations of President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, existing legislation was inadequate. Paradoxically, the US Justice Dept. had an ‘Organized Crime and Racketeering Section,’ but technically no such offences existed. Thus, RICO was signed into law in 1970 by the new Republican President, Richard Nixon, but only as a result of ground-breaking recommendations made in the late 1960s by President Johnson’s Commission to Examine Crime in America. The Bill was drafted by Prof. G. Robert Blakey (former Special Attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Justice Dept.) under the close supervision of the veteran Democratic Senator for Arkansas, John Little McClellan. Subsequently (guided by Prof. Blakey), a number of individual States enacted similar legislation.

RICO was, in many respects, an unprecedented law for a democracy in time of peace. Indeed, opponents still limply claim that it steps beyond the bounds of the US Constitution. Ironically, it was designed to protect the US Constitution and address an enduring, internal threat to the Republic that remains as dangerous as any external menace. However, in 1970, RICO appeared for all the world to be directed only against the Italian American ‘Mafia’ (although its authors steadfastly refuted this). Whether intentional or not, the Italian-sounding acronym, RICO, is unfortunately the same as that of the anti-hero of the classic 1931 Hollywood gangster movie, ‘Little Caesar’ (starring Edward G. Robinson, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and based on the 1929 Novel by William R. Burnett). RICO was drafted by lawyers for lawyers, and is, therefore, legalistic, but, at first glance, it can appear to be written in plain language; mainly because it also contains many popular terms. Even when deconstructed, the Act (like the phenomenon it addresses) cannot be fully-understood in isolation. In reality, in respect of the ‘Mafia,’ RICO legislators were trying to shut the stable door long after the horse had bolted. Indeed, another full decade was to elapse before a ‘Mafia Boss,’ Frank Tieri, was actually convicted.

Under RICO, an individual who is a member of any enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes (27 federal and 8 State) within a period of 10 years can be charged with ‘racketeering activity.’ The penalty for this crime is a fine of $250 000, and/or 20 years in prison, per racketeering count. In addition the convicted racketeer must forfeit all benefits and any interest on these benefits derived from a ‘pattern of racketeering activity.’ RICO also allows for any individual victimized by the actions of a criminal organization to file a civil suit against the racketeers and, if successful, claim triple damages. Furthermore, when a person is indicted under RICO, the US Attorney has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order, or injunction, to seize the defendant’s assets and, thus, block the transfer of property which might be forfeited in the future. RICO violations include: embezzlement, theft, fraud, obstruction of justice, money laundering, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, dealing in obscene material, slavery, murder, arson, acts of terrorism, etc. The US Supreme Court decided that a ‘pattern of racketeering activity’ is proved when criminal acts are related (i.e. ‘they have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims or methods of commission, or otherwise are interrelated by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated events.’). RICO can be applied in cases where retributive, and/or retaliatory, civil, and/or criminal, prosecutions are brought by racketeers against individuals (or corporate structures) who co-operate with federal law enforcement, and/or intelligence, agencies. Thus, the malicious utilization of the courts (by racketeers, and their attorneys) to punish, and/or silence, whistle blowers, and/or victims, is also in breach of RICO.


Copyright David Brear September 2009


Related links to Mr. Brear's blog post:

Nutrilite - From the Ground Up, Part 1

Nutrilite - From the Ground Up, Part 2

Interview with William W. Goodrich, Office of General Counsel, 1939-1971

Amway China Pyramid Sales and Financial Distress of Cult Adherents Reported in USA Today News Article

The USA Today has published an article describing the influx of pyramid sales schemes in China and provides some insight into the the financial, social and psychological distress many Chinese citizens have experienced as the result of their involvement in 'business cults.' 'Amway' doesn't escape scrutiny as the many lies 'business cult' recruits are told are manifest and Amway is the Mother of all pyramid sales schemes. The article reports that recruits have been told glowing lies about famous American personages like Hillary Clinton being involved with 'Amway' to convince the unwary to join.

Readers of Quixtar Cult Intervention might recall that I wrote a blog post recently describing how 'Amway' intends to swindle the naive Chinese in similar fashion to their past 'closed market swindle' of their North American 'true believers' which British born author and Amway critic David Brear describes as the 'Financial Holocaust.'

The USA Today article describes the recent crack down on these pyramid sales cults--to include Amway China and describes raids made by the Communist regime on hotel and convention centers where many mass meetings of these cult businesses take place. The article also describes the humiliation that many of 'the taken' have experienced. It has also been reported that the embarrassment has even resulted in the suicide of adherents.

The problem involving 'Amway' and a myriad of other pyramid sales clones has become so bad that a group known as the China Anti-Pyramid Sales Association has been set up to help people who have lost all their money in pyramid sales schemes like Amway and the other 'clones' which they have spawned. Significantly Amway in recent times has attempted to distance themselves from these others who represent a threat to their own swindle. I have reported that at times Amway has attempted to 'hide' amongst the myriad group of MLM businesses under the Direct Selling Association umbrella of 'multi-level direct sellers.' In China, Amway is the black-bottom pot always pointing out the dark corruption on bottom of all the other kettles.

It is well known that Amway's North American market, exposed by scandal and defection, has declined or remains flat. North American recruitment, sourly effected by Amway's Quixtar blunder and the 'IBO Rebellion,' has been in decline, all forcing Amway to seek out new recruits in other parts of the world to keep their closed market scheme--many times described as a 'product pyramid scam' going forward. Amway has significantly gone after the relatively naive Chinese and Indian populations for new victims to swindle, while attempting to play down the swindle already played out in the United States. The 'American Way' must now significantly relying on China and India and other former third world countries to carry their 'Utopian-like totalitarian ship of sorrows' forward. The American Way therefore must brag on their 'take' from their 'Chinese Way' haul and attempt to disregard the bad press generated about their North American affairs, which I should say should be pursued by the United States Department of Justice. The American Way masks a 'closed market swindle' now all mostly being played out on foreign soil and against the dignity of the Chinese and other citizens of the world. Can the citizens of the U.S. expect the likes of federal regulators to protect them from swindlers the likes of 'Amway.' Witness the current internal investigation of the SEC into the failings involving Bernie Madoff's supposedly legit investment swindle--which much like Amway--was represented to be 'legitimate business.' Sadly, the USA Today article, if written during the hey-day of the American Way in the U.S. might have helped prevented citizens here at home from being swindled by this same group of charlatans.

qiac September 2009

Amway and Scientology Disconnection from External Reality

By David Brear, Guide to the Amway Labyrinth:

‘The only way to control people is to lie to them.’

‘Somebody someday will say this is illegal...’

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986)

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Recently, I received a call from a former adherent of the ‘Scientology’ myth who, almost 10 years ago, fell victim to an absurd, but nonetheless pernicious, premeditated closed-market swindle (ostensibly) run (out of Santa Barbara California) by Reed Elliot Slatkin (b. 1949), an admired and respected ‘Minister of the Church of Scientology.’ For obvious reasons, my caller was interested in how ‘Amway’, like ‘Scientology,’ is a global racket comprising related-frauds, operated behind a mystifying labyrinth of (apparently independent) corporate structures pursuing lawful, and/or unlawful, activities which has been maliciously set up in order to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate its leadership from liability. Although my caller insisted that he’d never been tempted to become an ‘Independent Business Owner’ himself, he personally knew of a significant number of ‘Scientologists’ who had got involved with ‘Amway’ and vice versa. Indeed, my caller found it very difficult to believe (after reading the scripted, black propaganda on the Net) that ‘Amway’s’ unquestioning flock of (apparently independent) apologists, like our smug Mr. ‘IBOFB’ Steadson, have not received their training in how to lie to, cheat and destroy ‘Amway’ critics, from within ‘Scientology’. My caller directed me to www.slatkinfraud.com. This is probably the largest body of accurate information available describing one the most-revealing financial crimes in 6 decades of shameful ‘Scientology’ history.


In 1986, Reed Slatkin (then aged 37, and whose involvement with ‘Scientology’ already stretched back 23 years) began illegally to acquire absolute control over a capital sum which would eventually total around $600 millions. This was achieved by him posing as an ordinary man turned selfless capitalist superman – a wise ‘Investment Club Manager’ who (guided by the ‘Ethical’ principles of his ‘Religion’) always returned substantial profits for his ‘Club Members,’ no matter what the overall trading conditions were. Many of Slatkin’s (ultimate) victims were wealthy, low-level ‘Scientology’ initiates programmed to defer unconditionally to the moral and intellectual authority of high-level initiates; others were well-heeled Hollywood types.


Unfortunately, exactly like Bernie Madoff, Slatkin was nothing more than an economic alchemist - a once-penniless nobody: turned self-proclaimed financial guru who, despite the huge amount of cash he handled for (ultimately) 800 listed ‘investors,’ was not even registered with the Securities Exchange Commission. Unlike Madoff, Slatkin completed many trades, but these were generally disastrous and his losses quickly grew to monumental proportions. At first glance, I assumed Slatkin to be a typical narcissistic charlatan who didn’t have the beginnings of a clue what he was doing. However, I then discovered that many of the failing ‘partner’ companies which Slatkin recklessly continued to pour his victims’ money into, were created and run by his fellow core-‘Scientologists’ (some of whom had previous convictions for fraud). This aspect of the Slatkin affair immediately put me in mind of Mel Brooks’ 1968 comedy film, ‘The Producers,’ in which the two central characters, ‘Max Bialystok’ and ‘Leo Bloom,’ stage a financially-suicidal Broadway musical (‘Springtime for Hitler’) in order to cheat their elderly (mostly Jewish widow) ‘investors.’


During 15 years, Slatkin succeeded in maintaining an absolute monopoly of information about his loss-making activities – issuing countless fake ‘account statements’ and paying out what he arbitrarily and falsely defined as ‘profits’ to favoured ‘investors’ by using authentic money from fresh victims. In this way, between January 1st 1986 and April 30th 2001, Slatkin passed more than $151 millions of stolen cash to 75 (apparently independent) individuals many of whom were core-‘Scientologists.’ A second (slightly larger) group pocketed $44 millions. If we just take one example, Joel Kreiner, ‘Scientology’s’ primary tax attorney, received a whopping $5 866 583. Well into this period, Slatkin became involved in the creation of a truly successful company, the Internet service provider, EarthLink Inc. Sadly, this only served to enhance his unwarranted reputation as a shrewd businessman on the cutting edge of technology. Thus, drawing more victims into his pay-to-play game of make-believe.


By the spring of 2001, the flow of cash was finally drying up. A few ‘investors’ began to smell a rat when Slatkin (who now couldn’t even refund them, let alone pay them their fictitious ‘profits’) began stalling for time. The SEC finally stepped in - filing a civil enforcement action and freezing Slatkin’s remaining assets. Simultaneously, the FBI executed criminal search warrants and discovered that Slatkin’s miraculous, ever-growing ‘investment fund’ was a classic Ponzi scheme in deficit to the tune of $255 millions. Furthermore, the FBI found that Slatkin had gone to the most extraordinary lengths - including the creation of a fictitious ‘Swiss bank, NAA Financial,’ - to conceal the truth. Strangely, like Bernie Madoff, Slatkin gave himself up, but when he was interviewed by SEC lawyers, much to their amazement (in response to a standard question about his educational qualifications), he treated them to a deeply mystifying, extended lecture on his ‘Scientology Beliefs and Ethics,’ and recounted his 38 years in ‘Scientology.’ This included how Slatkin:

- (as a 14 year old boy) was recruited into the organization by his uncle, after the sudden death of his father.

- (before graduating from High-School) travelled to the UK to study ‘Spiritual Technology’ at Saint Hill Manor under L. Ron Hubbard himself.

- (in his late teens) was involved in the setting up of Hubbard’s ‘Sea Organization’ in Scotland, but was deported from the UK, and his passport confiscated, when the UK Minister for Health declared ‘Scientology’ to be a public danger.

During the SEC interviews, Slatkin (without the slightest embarrassment) proudly recited from the comic-book ‘Scientology’ script; demonstrating that he was still the de facto agent of its authors. However, during his trial, his lawyer stated that it had taken a while to ‘deprogram’ his client, but now Slatkin accepted that he’d been acting under the influence of ‘Scientology.’


On September 2nd 2003, after pleading guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and obstructing justice, Slatkin was sentenced (by California Judge, Magaret Morrow), to serve 14 years in a federal prison. Although ‘Scientology’s’ attorneys now maintain that Slatkin’s defence was rejected out of hand by Judge Morrow, she felt obliged to state before sentencing that:


‘The Court does not discount the importance of the Church (‘Scientology’) in his life and that it colored his judgement.’


During the trial, and sentencing, a claque of smug ‘Scientologists’ in civilian dress had queued to be first into the courtroom. They all smirked and sniggered in unison, acting as though Slatkin’s attorney was a crazy conspiracy theorist, each time he had made the slightest reference to his client being programmed. A highly-convenient witness (and long-time ‘Scientologist’) Daniel W. Jacobs (b. 1946), testified (under oath) that Slatkin had met with him in a restaurant in 2001 and openly boasted about having:

- millions of dollars stashed away in gold, art works, etc.

- a plan to ‘implicate Scientology.’

Jacobs (who described himself as a ‘financial consultant’) had, in fact, made a prior agreement with the prosecution. In return for his co-operation and guilty plea, he would receive a derisory 4 month prison sentence for conspiracy to obstruct the SEC investigation. Jacobs admitted that, for 12 months, he had posed as a representative of Slatkin’s fictitious ‘Swiss Brokerage.’ He had assisted in the production of fake ‘Swiss account statements’ and running fake ‘Swiss telephone numbers,’ all of which were designed to fool victims and regulators into believing that a reputable overseas financial institution held hundreds of millions of dollars of missing cash. Tellingly, Slatkin’s alleged stash has never been traced, and (in direct contradiction to Jacob’s statement) the quantifiable evidence proved that Slatkin had paid $1.7 million of his ill-gotten gains directly to ‘Scientology’ groups, and that he had facilitated the channelling (via favoured ‘investors’ who were gung-ho ‘Scientologists’) of an unspecified amount to corporate structures affiliated to ‘Scientology.’ Indeed, in November 2008, it was reported that a ‘Scientology’ attorney, David Schindler, had ‘negotiated a compromise’ with Alexander Pilmer, an attorney acting for Slatkin’s bankruptcy trustee, R. Nodd Nielson, in which ‘Scientology’ agreed to pay back $3.5 millions to victims. After being in receipt of bundles of cash for 15 years (apparently in total innocence that it was stolen), the leadership of ‘Scientology’ suddenly pronounced the ‘Excommunication’ of Slatkin, and all the many references to him as a glowing example of a ‘Scientology’ success story, have been removed from the organization’s latest 100% positive propaganda. To date, no further investigation has been pursued against the leadership of ‘Scientlogy’ by the US authorities regarding this affair. The buck stopped with Slatkin and five associates, even if the bucks didn’t.


In a previous article I began to explain the (underlying) similarities between the two (apparently diverse) groups most-commonly referred to as ‘Amway’ and ‘Scientology.’ For anyone who has encountered gung-ho ‘Amway,’ proselytizers in his/her own social circle, but who still finds this unpalatable analysis difficult to digest, I would suggest that he/she reads any of the testimonies of the heartbroken friends and relatives of core-‘Scientologists’ who have been exposed to (what the original author of the ‘Scientology’ myth arbitrarily defined as) ‘Disconnection.’ Better still, take a look at the frighteningly familiar testimony of Jason Beghe (the 49 year old Hollywood actor and former poster-boy for ‘Scientology’) who now accepts that (during a period spanning more than 10 years) he was tricked into believing that he was making a free-choice to hand-over around $1 million to a gang of racketeers posing as the philanthropic leadership of the ‘Worlds Fastest-Growing Religion/Self-Betterment Movement.’


Although the flock of bleating apparatchiks at the ‘Scientology’ Ministry of Truth steadfastly pretend that there has never been a doctrine of ‘Disconnection’ in their ‘Church’ and that ‘Scientology’ brings families together, it is a matter of public record that anyone challenging the authenticity of the ‘Scientology’ myth has always been systematically categorized, condemned and excluded by it, as a ‘Suppressive Person’ (‘S.P’) – a negative threat to redemption with whom positive ‘Scientologists’ must break all contact, because only total belief leads to freedom, enlightenment, health, happiness, prosperity, etc. Obviously, by making total belief a prerequisite of redemption, adherents are drawn into a closed-logic trap (i.e. failure to achieve redemption is solely the fault of the individual who didn’t believe totally). Indeed, a growing list of courageous dissidents (who have refused to be intimidated or bought off) confirm that the more cash an individual coughs up to climb in the endless ‘Scientology’ pyramid of ‘Secret Knowledge:’ the more outrageous and extreme the group’s totalitarian controlling-scenario becomes. According to Hubbard’s most-paranoid fantasies: High-level, ‘Scientologists’ transform into immortal, intellectually and physically superior ‘Homo Novis’ (the next stage in human evolution), whilst ‘Wogs’ (the derogatory ‘Scientology’ jargon for Homo Sapiens) remain inferior, mortal animals - the unenlightened pawns of an ‘Evil Extraterrestrial Ruler, Xenu.’ ‘Scientologists’ alone represent a protective force of enlightenment, purity and absolute righteousness. They are super-humans on a ‘Mission to Clear Planet Earth’ and, thus, ‘Save our Sector of the Galaxy from Destruction.’


No matter how absurd and impossible their comic-book model of reality might seem to outsiders, all active core-‘Scientologists’ unconsciously accept that it is perfectly justifiable to ‘lie, cheat and destroy,’ because they have a higher moral purpose… they alone are engaged in a never-ending war against evil. Once the unoriginal, dualistic fiction modifying the behaviour and personalities of core-‘Scientologists’ is understood, the grotesque crimes of persons like Reed Slatkin are revealed in an entirely different light. Like their unquestioning ‘Nazi’ predecessors, core-‘Scientologists’ are individuals who have been dissociated from external reality and who no longer possess the capacity to think critically and evaluate what is right and what is wrong in the traditional sense. Indeed, after examining more than 50 years of evidence, the German government considers ‘Scientology’ to be an anti-constitutional, criminogenic organization and a potential threat to democracy. ‘Scientology’ is closely monitored by agencies of German government, and its adherents are prohibited from holding posts in the German federal and State administrations. After years of lobbying by ‘Scientology,’ a group of less-than-intellectually-rigorous officials in the US State Dept. have felt obliged to criticise the attitude of the German government. Yet, of all nations, one would have thought that the Germans would be perhaps the most skilled when it comes to recognising the ugly spectre of totalitarianism, no matter how prettily it might be dressed. Predictably, ‘Scientology’s’ reality-inverting black propaganda has attempted to compare German ‘Scientologists’ to European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s - the innocent victims of a bunch of Nazi-style anti-religious fanatics.


Copyright David Brear July 2009


The verdict in the recent trial of 7 core-‘Scientologists’ in France (who are charged with organized fraud and the illegal practise of pharmacy) is now not expected until next October.


_____________________________

'Amway footnote to the Slatkin affair.'
_____________________________


I’d like to thank Robert FitzPatrick (President of Pyramid Scheme Alert) for drawing my attention to the fact that Ms. Jodie Bernstein (Director of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, 1997-2002) was solicited by the St. Louis-based law firm, Bryan Cave LLP, and that (in her new, much more highly-paid capacity) she then enthusiastically lied to her former colleagues at the FTC on behalf of the ‘Amway’ mob - arguing that there was no need for government regulation of her client in particular, and of ‘Multilevel Marketing’ in general.


It will come as no surprise to regular readers to learn that Bryan Cave LLP has also defended Reed Slatkin. Indeed, Mr. Gerald Boltz (a former Securities Exchange Commission Administrator) was also solicited by Bryan Cave LLP, and (in his new, much more highly-paid capacity) he then enthusiastically lied to his former colleagues at the SEC on behalf of Reed Slatkin, arguing (at the beginning of 2000) that there was no need to file a civil enforcement action to freeze his client’s remaining assets.


In 2003, it was reported that Reed Slatkin’s bankruptcy trustee, R. Todd Neilson (a former FBI agent) had complained to US Bankruptcy Judge, Robert Riblet, that Gerald Boltz and his associates at Bryan Cave LLP had deliberately mishandled Slatkin’s case and, thus, permitted hundreds of individuals to continue to lose their money. Neilson argued that Boltz (as a former top SEC lawyer) should have immediately deduced that Slatkin was running a Ponzi scheme, but (inexplicably) he did not.


Bryan Cave LLP subsequently filed a ‘tentative settlement’ with the US Bankruptcy Court, in which the law firm denied any wrongdoing, but (all the same) offered to pay Slatkin’s trust $650 000 to be distributed to its creditors. Limply, Bryan Cave LLP (a firm that promotes itself as being expert in financial fraud) posed as a wide-eyed victim totally deceived by Slatkin’s fake documentation. In any event, Gerald Boltz’ amoral defence was that, as Slatkin’s counsel, his duty was to his client: not to his client’s ‘investors.’


In 2003, Slatkin’s mystifying labyrinth of lies was still in process of being partially dismantled by Alexander Pilmer, the attorney acting for R. Todd Neilson. At this time, hundreds of Slatkin’s (ultimate) victims were owed around $240 millions, and more than 200 lawsuits had been filed to recover money from financial institutions and individuals who had profited directly from Slatkin’s crimes. However, Pilmer was also in negotiation with attorneys acting for another (even more-mystifying) labyrinth of lies. The leadership of ‘Scientology’ had profited indirectly from Slatkin’s crimes - receiving an unspecified number of payments (arbitrarily defined as ‘donations’) via an unspecified number of corporate structures (arbitrarily defined as ‘non-profit-making organizations’) from 75 individuals (who were core-‘Scientologists’). These people headed the list of those who had profited directly. For obvious reasons, Pilmer requested that all these ‘donations’ to ‘Scientology Groups’ (allegedly totalling many tens of millions of dollars) should be immediately declared and returned. After 5 years of wrangling, ‘Scientology’ coughed up a mere $3.5 millions, but this included $1.7 millions that Slatkin ‘donated’ himself.


However, many obvious questions have (apparently) never been asked by law enforcement agents - principally:


Since, out of the 75 core-‘Scientologists’ who (over a period of 15 years) were proved to have received a total of $151 millions from Slatkin (arbitrarily and falsely defined as ‘profits on investments’), a significant number were from the so-called ‘Sea Organization’ who are paid just $50 per week, where exactly did certain pious members of this poor ‘Scientology Religious Order’ suddenly acquire the odd quarter of a millions dollars (in cash) to ‘invest’ with Slatkin in the first place?


Copyright David Brear July 2009

Next to the Amway Mob, Madoff is an Amateur - He Got Caught!

By the tour guide to the 'Amway Labyrinth' David Brear:

‘If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’

(Anon. 20th century proverb)

I’d long-since given up being scandalised by the dozens of hard-pressed hacks who, during 2009, have parroted (without qualification or heavy irony) the following reality-inverting propaganda broadcast by the ‘Amway’ Ministry of Truth:

‘The Billionaire Owners of the Amway Corporation have created 3 Millions Independent Business Owners Worldwide with Total Annual Sales of $8.2bn.’

However, the ‘Amway’ mob must have fallen about laughing when a UK High Court Judge and three UK Appeal Court Judges also repeated (without qualification or heavy irony) elements of the same script in long-winded judgements which (apparently) took them many months to formulate. Sadly, the sanctimonious little gang of Bible-thumping charlatans who dreamed-up the comic-book ‘commercial’ fiction entitled: ‘Amway - the World’s Largest Direct Selling Company,’ have been allowed to peddle it as fact for the past 50 years. They have presented themselves as ordinary men turned selfless capitalist supermen and infiltrated traditional culture -surviving all less-than-intellectually-rigorous challenges whilst continuing to expand the scale of their lies year on year, until the ugly truth (lurking behind their seductive yarn) has become almost unthinkable to casual observers (including many politicians, regulators, Judges and journalists). In the adult world of quantifiable reality, the ‘Amway’ mob are economic alchemists whose miraculous ever-growing Multi-Billion Dollar Sales have never existed. Furthermore, the endless chain of wide-eyed dreamers who have temporarily become totally convinced that they owned a share of them, can in no way be accurately described as ‘Independent Business Owners’. This reality-inverting term is merely the ‘Amway’ mob’s own arbitrary definition of their victims (some of whom have lost everything and committed suicide).

Let’s face it, how (in the cold light of day) can the world continue to accept that:

Richard DeVos and Jay VanAndel (a couple of ambitious, but penniless, WWII veterans), became billionaires by inventing a new form of infallible, philanthropic capitalism based on the ‘Christian-inspired principle of helping others to succeed?’

Recently, however, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read the following thoughtless headline on the BBC News Website:

'Bernard Madoff has been given the maximum prison sentence of 150 years for masterminding a massive fraud that robbed investors of $65bn (£40bn).’

Even now, with the benefit of hindsight, the majority of commentators have completely failed to grasp that what Madoff steadfastly pretended to be the ‘World’s Largest Hedge Fund’ was nothing more than a comic-book ‘commercial’ fiction which, for the best part of 20 years, he was allowed to peddle as fact. He presented himself as an ordinary man turned selfless capitalist superman and infiltrated traditional culture - surviving all less-than-intellectually-rigorous challenges whilst continuing to expand the scale of his lies year on year until the ugly truth (lurking behind his seductive yarn) became almost unthinkable to casual observers (including many politicians, regulators, Judges and journalists). In the adult world of quantifiable reality, Madoff was a economic alchemist whose miraculous ever-growing multi-billion dollar trading profits never existed. The wide-eyed dreamers who became totally convinced that they owned a piece of them, can in no way be accurately described as ‘Investors.’ This reality-inverting term was merely Madoff’s own arbitrary definition of his victims (some of whom lost everything and committed suicide). In fact, when Madoff was finally arrested, less than $1bn remained under his control.

Let’s face it, how (in the cold light of day) could the world have accepted that:

Bernie Madoff (an ambitious, but penniless, lifeguard), became a billionaire by inventing a new form of infallible, philanthropic capitalism which enabled him to invest on the stock market and always show a profit, no matter what the overall trading conditions were?

or that:

Bernie Madoff was prepared (because of his Jewish-inspired Principles) to share the secret of his success with others?

At the risk of stating the obvious, if ten individuals each give you ten coins, then, no matter how you divide the resulting one hundred coins, it is impossible for you to give all your contributors a greater number of coins than they started with. In technical terms, this is an elementary example of an unviable, centrally-controlled, closed system of economic exchange; in that, since it has no consistent source of external revenue, it can have no possibility of generating a profit for the bulk of its contributing participants. The same incontrovertible logic applies if your contributors number one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, one million or even one hundred millions. Unless the person(s) receiving the coins possesses the superhuman power to suspend the laws of physics and miraculously create more coins from nothing, then their number remains finite. Any claim to the contrary is a lie, and lying to people to get their money is fraud which is a form of theft.

A pyramid scam can be essentially defined as:

1). Any systematic fraud wherein an unviable, centrally-controlled closed-market is maliciously promoted as a viable, decentralised, open market from which any contributing participant can expect to receive a future material benefit.

2). Any self-perpetuating deception wherein the self-gratifying group-delusion that an authentic system of economic exchange exists which can keep generating an incremental material benefit for all its contributing participants if they just find further contributing participants, who, in turn just find further contributing participants, etc. in an infinitely expanding, geometric progression, is maliciously established for the purpose of human exploitation.

A pyramid scam can, therefore, be more accurately described as a ‘premeditated closed-market swindle.’ In everyday terms, it is the peddling of the finite as infinite, or ‘Alchemy’ applied to economics. Consequently, there can be no doubt that Bernie Madoff ran the most-widely understood form of ‘closed-market swindle.’ These can be technically defined as:

Those without tangible specificity (popularly known as: ‘Snowball,’ or ‘Ponzi,’ schemes or ‘Money Games’); wherein the instigators counterfeit, and/or subvert, a simple corporate structure in which they arbitrarily, and falsely, define themselves as ‘Commercial Sponsors’, ‘Fund Managers’, etc. Then, by maintaining an absolute monopoly of information presented using a constant repetition of further, thought-stopping ‘commercial’ key words and images combined with pseudo-economic mystification, deceive members of the public into becoming, and to deceive others into becoming, the unconscious victims of, and contributing participants in, a counterfeit ‘Investment Scheme’ without a consistent source of external revenue (due to the fact that the instigators’ hidden motive is merely the acquisition of victims’ money) in which victims are arbitrarily, and falsely, defined by the instigators as ‘Investors,’ but over which the instigators retain absolute control of its means of exchange.

The graphic description, ‘Snowball scheme,’ stems from the fact that when the number of victims reaches a critical mass, belief in the Utopian myth of a miraculous system to multiply money, begins to roll-along and grow under its own momentum. ‘Closed-market swindles’ can, therefore, also be described using any traditional allegory illustrating collective delusion: the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’; the ‘Blind Leading the Blind’; the ‘Ship of Fools’; etc. However, the phenomenon is now perhaps best described as an organic computer virus - a contagious parasite that needs human minds to give it existence. Once it has found a vulnerable point of entry, the virus proliferates and survives in traditional culture, because carriers systematically pass it on via their social contacts. When explained in these accurate deconstructed terms, the psychology driving ‘closed-market swindles’ is indistinguishable to that driving any other self-gratifying, pseudo-scientific delusion. New adherents often exhibit euphoria, but certain converts can become completely dissociated from external reality; experiencing a prolonged psychotic episode. That said, in their most well-known form, ‘closed-market swindles’ are unsustainable. Although a proportion of illegal gains can be used to maintain the temporary illusion of authenticity, when the supply of new converts runs out, and/or too many adherents begin to demand their fictitious profits, the virus writers (unless they become deluded themselves) are forced to abscond with the cash. The authorities are only hit by a storm of complaint when the core-group of victims suddenly reconnects with external reality.

Bernie Madoff is an almost unique case, in that (although he has apparently withheld the whole truth about his activities in order to protect his criminal associates) he gave himself up to the authorities, pled guilty to fraud and allowed himself to be held to account. The once mighty Madoff has now been described as ‘the most-hated man in America.’ However, given the wider evidence, next to the ‘Amway’ mob he looks like a boy scout. Behind their sanctimonious act, what the ‘Amway’ mob released on a vulnerable 1950s America was a virulent new strain of premeditated closed-market swindle, which (today) can be defined as:

Those with tangible specificity (known as ‘Multilevel Marketing,’ or ‘MLM,’ or ‘Network Marketing,’ or ‘Networking,’ or ‘Direct Selling,’ or ‘Self-Directed Income,’ or ‘SDI,’ scams); wherein the instigators create, and/or subvert, a mystifying series of (apparently independent) corporate structures in which they arbitrarily define themselves as ‘Manufacturers,’ and/or ‘Suppliers,’ of ‘Exclusive Products,’ and/or ‘Services,’ and as ‘Commercial Sponsors’ then, by maintaining an absolute monopoly of information presented using a constant repetition of further thought-stopping ‘commercial’ key words and images combined with a cocktail of pseudo-scientific mystification, deceive members of the public into becoming, and to deceive others into becoming, the unconscious victims of, and contributing participants in, a counterfeit ‘Direct Sales Scheme’ (without a consistent source of external revenue due to the fact that the products, and/or services, are kept at such a banal quality, and/or high price, as to render them effectively unsaleable on the open market) in which victims are arbitrarily defined by the instigators as: ‘Independent Business Owners, Self-Employed Distributors,’ etc., but over which the instigators retain absolute control of not only its means of exchange, but also over its means of production and distribution and its system of dispute-resolution.

In effect, the ‘Amway’ mob originally instigated a more mystifying (and, therefore, more sustainable) version of a Ponzi scheme where illegal internal payments were arbitrarily and falsely defined by them as ‘sales.’ Victims were generally honest, law-abiding Christian folk manipulated by their existing beliefs and instinctual desires. When, inevitably, they lost money, on paper (because they were arbitrarily and falsely defined as ‘Independent Business Owners’) it appeared to be the participants own fault. Many were too financially weakened, and/or embarrassed, and/or guilt-ridden, to confront external reality and complain. They’d often been recruited by a friend or relative, and, in turn, they’d tried to recruit their own friends and relatives (making the truth even more unthinkable).

Unfortunately, the ‘Amway’ mob didn’t stop there.


Copyright David Brear July 2009


Bernie Madoff at the helm of his 'ship of fraud' in happier times, all represented as legitimate business:

‘Amway’ and ‘Scientology,’ Apart From Their Labels, What’s the Difference?

..by blog contributor David Brear, Guide to the Amway Labyrinth. . .

‘A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.’

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Readers might be interested to know that, currently, around eighteen thousand five hundred hits appear when you search on ‘Google’ for: ‘Amway Scientology.’ However, this is hardly surprising since, down the years, all intellectually rigorous observers have been struck by the blatant (underlying) similarities between the two groups. In fact, it has become a matter of public record that a significant number of unquestioning players of the ‘Scientology’ game of make-believe have also been easily seduced into becoming de facto slaves of the ‘Amway’ myth.


Recently, there have been headline reports in the international media that a major criminal trial involving the ‘Church of Scientology’ and some of its leading adherents has opened in France. The charges (resulting from typical complaints filed up to ten years ago by destitute former adherents) comprise ‘d’escrocrie en bande organisée’ (‘organized fraud’) and ‘exercise illégal de la pharmacie’ (‘illegal practise of pharmacy’). Despite the mysterious refusal of State prosecutors to take prompt action, an independent Investigating-Judge, Jean-Christophe Hullin, examined the same compelling evidence and concluded that ‘Scientology’ has precious little to do with traditional religion. It is a deceptive commercial business using a manipulative system of progressively expensive initiation (dressed-up as a scientifically-based faith) designed to exploit vulnerable individuals to the benefit of a gang of arrogant racketeers based in the USA. At the risk of repeating myself, no matter what transpires in the current, localised French challenge to the authenticity of the global ‘Scientology’ myth , it will forever remain one of the sickest ironies of history that the United States of America, a nation born out of an enlightened rebellion against absolutism, should have poured trillions of tax dollars and the blood of hundreds of thousands of its finest citizens into keeping latter-day absolutism at bay in the 20th century, only have its elected leaders completely fail to recognize essentially the same cancer (albeit in heavy disguise) not just multiplying unchecked in the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,’ but also infecting the rest of the world.


True to form, ‘Scientology’s’ aggressive echelon of French apologists steadfastly pretend that their ‘Church’:

- is a legitimate, and long-established, world-religion.

- cannot be held to blame for the actions of its individual members.

- is the innocent victim of an unwarranted attack by religious bigots.

- always offers a refund to anyone who is not satisfied. etc.

However, the seven French citizens named in the ‘Scientology’ indictment (who risk maximum fines of 1 million Euros each and ten years in prison) are, in fact, not officially recognised (on the charge sheet) as members of any ‘Church’ or ‘faith group,’ but merely as officers of two (apparently independent) corporate structures registered in France as:

1. ‘SARL Scientology Espace Liberté (Scientology Free Space Inc.)’ a.k.a. ‘SARL SEL,’ a privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company with a declared purpose of being a retail outlet for books, recordings and various merchandise and educational courses (situated in the 17th district of Paris).

2. ‘Association spiritual de l’Eglise de Scientology - Celebrity Center (Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology - Celebrity Center)’ a.k.a. ‘Ases - CC,’ the French branch of an international philanthropic organization (originally incorporated in the USA in the 1950s).

The widespread inaccurate reporting of recent events in France is a perfect example of how mystifying ‘Scientology’ is and how its manipulation functions, in that, although the group’s own ‘religious’ script continues to be repeated (without detailed qualification or heavy irony) by most commentators, officially, there is no ‘Church of Scientology’ in the French republic. What’s more, there never has been. Indeed, the impossibly-complex international conglomerate which is now most-commonly referred to as ‘Scientology,’ was first presented externally to the American public in 1950 as a single privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company, arbitrarily defined by its instigator as the ‘Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation Inc.’ This initial corporate structure was almost immediately challenged by numerous, intellectually-rigorous observers as a counterfeit beacon luring the vulnerable, and unwary, into a crackpot pseudo-scientific swindle with potentially disastrous consequences. Tellingly, within less than 5 years it had been dissolved to prevent, and divert, investigation and isolate its instigator from liability. Since that time, the underlying fiction has survived all further low-level challenges to its authenticity by subdividing and multiplying its constituent chapters and verses like cancer cells. In its wake, has been left a grim trail of destitution, debt, dissociation, depression, divorce and even death. Today, the same old fiction continues to be presented externally around the globe as a mystifying labyrinth of countless, ever changing and expanding corporate structures, arbitrarily defined as the ‘International Church of Scientology,’ comprising various parent ‘Churches,’ including, the ‘American Church of Science,’ the ‘Church of Spiritual Technology,’ etc., and numerous subsidiary ‘Churches’ and affiliated groupings of adherents, including, ‘United Churches of Florida’; ‘AAS’ (‘American Association of Scientologists’), ‘HASI’ (‘Hubbard Association of Scientologists International’); and as numerous unaffiliated groupings of adherents, including ‘CCHR’ (‘Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights’), ‘WHF’ (‘Way to Happiness Foundation’); ‘ABLE’ (‘Association for Better Living and Education’); ‘CBAA’ (‘Concerned Businessmen’s Association of America’); ‘ARAS’ (‘Academy of Religious Arts and Sciences’), ‘Narconon’, ‘Criminon’, etc.; and as numerous ‘privately-controlled, limited-liability commercial companies,’ including, the ‘Hubbard Explorational Company’; ‘OTC’ (‘Operation and Transport Corporation’); ‘Scientific Press of Phoenix Inc.’; ‘New Era Publications Inc.’, ‘Southern Land Sales and Development Inc.’; ‘Distribution Center Inc.’, ‘HealthMed Inc.’, ‘Sterling Management Systems Inc.’, etc.


Behind this shifty (but frighteningly familiar) edifice lurks a deceptively kitsch Utopian myth of exclusive redemption in a future, secure existence (where only unquestioning believers win Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Freedom, etc.). Self-evidently, this closed-logic game of make-believe is neither original nor unique. Therefore, it cannot be fully-understood in isolation. Although it remains hard for some casual observers to accept, the wider evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the technical-sounding trademark, ‘Scientology,’ was plucked out of thin air in 1952 as the label for what was to become one of the most ridiculous, but nonetheless pernicious and profitable, totalitarian/cultic rackets in recent history. On closer inspection, ‘Scientology’ turns out to be the identical (criminogenic) twin of ‘Amway’- the entrance to a sustainable ‘advanced fee fraud’ based on a perverse plagiarism of various, traditional, esoteric, ritual belief systems. ‘Scientology’s’ fictitious, dualistic scenario of control has been peddled as fact to its core-adherents using a cocktail of pseudo-scientific mystification combined with the traditional myth of a ‘Supreme Spirit of Evil in a state of everlasting conflict with a Supreme Spirit of Good,’ but transposed into the vocabulary and imagery of 20th century, American comic-book science-fiction.


According to the bleating flock of apparatchiks at the ‘Scientology’ Ministry of Truth: currently, there are 8 millions happy ‘Scientologists’ worldwide. Unfortunately, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, the best available estimates from reliable sources (including French, Belgian and German government agencies) reveal that the overwhelming majority of persons who are deceived into buying into this self-gratifying group-delusion, abandon ‘Scientology’ within a short time (without complaint), and that there are probably less than 50 000 long-term believers around the world. That said, during the previous 12 months, the numbers of new customers being caught up in the ‘Scientology’ snowball have been in steep decline due to the energetic activities of a youthful protest movement known as ‘Anonymous.’ Ironically, this peaceful group only came into existence as a reaction to ‘Scientology’s’ leaders’ arrogant efforts to control all information about their activities on the Internet. Needless to say, the closed-logic ‘Scientology’ myth systematically categorizes all free-thinking individuals challenging its authenticity as ‘Suppressives’, ‘criminals’ , ‘ terrorists’, etc.


The author of the ‘Scientology’ myth, and its first self-appointed sovereign leader, was Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (b. March 11th 1911 - d. January 26th 1986), a.k.a. ‘Brother Ron’ a.k.a. ‘LRH’ a.k.a. Ron ‘Flash’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Captain’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commodore’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Admiral’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Doctor’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commander in Chief of the Sea Org’ etc., a US Naval Reserve veteran, amateur hypnotist and prolific writer of pulp-fiction. Although all the quantifiable evidence proves Hubbard to have been nothing more than a penniless narcissist turned multi-millionaire charlatan, who ultimately withdrew into a progressively-paranoid, drug, and alcohol, fuelled delusion (spending his final years in hiding to avoid being held to account by agents of the US Internal Revenue Service), for more than half a century, the full explanation of his activities has been occulted by his own reality-inverting script of:

‘Adventurer’; ‘Explorer’; ‘Pilot’; ‘Navigator’; ‘Best Selling Author/Screenwriter’; ‘Philosopher’; ‘Scholar’, ‘Researcher’; ‘Mathematician’; ‘Linguist’; ‘Geologist’; ‘Engineer’, ‘Nuclear Physicist’; ‘War Hero’; ‘Inventor’; ‘Philanthropist’; ‘Psychiatric Therapist’; ‘Dianetics’ (‘the Modern Science of Mental Health’); ‘AD’ (‘After Dianetics’); ‘Dianeticists’; ‘New Era Dianetics’; ‘Franchising’; ‘Research’; ‘New Science’; ‘Science of Certainty’; ‘Science of Survival’; ‘Auditing’; ‘Auditing Level’; ‘Processing’; ‘Training’; ‘Analytical Mind’; ‘Reactive Mind’; ‘Pre-Clears’; ‘Clears’; ‘Clear Certainty Rundown’; ‘Sunshine Rundown’; ‘Hubbard Dianetic Auditor’s Certificate’; ‘Journal of Scientology’; ‘Electropsychometric Auditing’; ‘E-Meter’; ‘Personality Test’; ‘Communications Courses’; ‘Introspection’; ‘Religion’; ‘Sacred Scriptures’; ‘Ministers’; ‘Thetan’; ‘BT’ (‘Body Thetan’); ‘OT’ (‘Operating Thetan’); ‘GE’ (‘Genetic Entity’); ‘PTS’ (‘Potential Trouble Source’); ‘Missions’; ‘Fixed Donations’; ‘Diagnosis’; ‘Healing’; ‘Helping Mankind’; ‘Check-List’; ‘Returning Down the Time Track’; ‘Reincarnation’; ‘Engrams’; ‘Truth’; ‘Freedom’; ‘Self-Determination’; ‘Moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom’; ‘Code of Ethics’; ‘Ethics Technology’; ‘Ethics Officers’; ‘Justice’; ‘Human Rights’; ‘Evolution Theory’; ‘Education’; ‘Briefing Course’; ‘Self-Betterment’; ‘Cybernetics’; ‘Engineering Technology’; ‘Radiation’; ‘Modern Management Technology’; ‘Celebrity Centers’; ‘Spiritual Guidance Centers’; ‘Purification’; ‘Saunas’; ‘Oils’; ‘Vitamins’; ‘Minerals’; ‘position against Drugs’; ‘position against Alcohol’; ‘position against Satanism’; ‘position against Cults’; ‘Messengers’; ‘HCO’ (‘Hubbard Communications Office’); ‘CS’ (‘Case Supervisor’); ‘DSA’ (‘Department of Special Affairs’); ‘SZP’ (‘Special Zone Plan’); ‘DGA’ (‘Department of Government Affairs’); ‘Sea Project’; ‘Flag Land-Base’; ‘Guardian's Office’; ‘Orgs’ (‘Organizations’); ‘Sea Org’; ‘Cine Org’; ‘Organizing Board’; ‘Crimes’; ‘Punishment’; ‘Suppressive Acts’; ‘SP’ (‘Suppressive Persons’); ‘Fair Game Policy’; ‘Billion Year Contracts’; ‘Black Propaganda’; ‘Treason’; ‘Isolation Watch’; ‘RPF’ (‘Rehabilitation Project Force’); ‘EOC’ (‘End of Cycle’); ‘Conspiracy’; etc.


Throughout most of his life, Hubbard steadfastly pretended moral and intellectual authority - going to the most extraordinary lengths to maintain an absolute monopoly of information about himself - whilst perpetrating, and sanctioning, a series of evermore serious crimes. The unconditional deference of his deluded core-adherents only served to confirm, and magnify, his own paranoid delusions. When his kingdom was threatened, Hubbard sustained his activities by the imposition of arbitrary codes and contracts (secrecy, denunciation, confession, justice, punishment, etc.) on his subjects, and by the use of humiliation, intimidation, calumny, malicious prosecution (where he posed as victim), sophism, the infiltration of traditional culture, corruption, intelligence gathering and blackmail, extortion, physical isolation, violence, etc; to repress any internal or external dissent. It was Hubbard and latterly his heir, David Miscavige (b. 1960), who organized the creation, dissolution and subversion of all manner of further (apparently independent) corporate structures pursuing lawful, and/or unlawful, activities to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate themselves from liability. In this way, the ‘Scientology’ myth has infiltrated traditional culture to a degree almost without parallel in the sordid Pantheon of modern-day cultism. Sadly, an alarming number of unthinking observers (not just in the media, but also in law enforcement, and in the religious, and political, establishment) have swallowed L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘religious’ bait and insisted that his totalitarian fiction has every right to be peddled as fact.


Copyright David Brear June 2009
(the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings)

Are Pernicous World Cults Like Amway a Legitimate Career Path?

Amway is a detestable world cult. Of course, Amway apologists continue to deny Amway's status as a cult, preferring to maintain that Amway is merely a commercial entity. These denials describe the delusion and utter state of ignorance the Amway cult adherents are expected to mentally exist within--all to their own ultimate undoing!

The Amway cult initiators (DeVos - Van Andel) have always sought to control the means of Amway production and distribution--all so very much like past failed Orwellian totalitarian states. David Brear's examination of historical totalitarian states helps shine light into the dark chambers of the Amway Labyrinth, inhabited by Amway apologists like 'Jack and Jill' (IBOFightBack and Bridgett Baron), both deniers of the 'Amway financial holocaust.' The Amway Labyrinth has been illuminated by QCI contributor David Brear's own keen insight which promotes a more complete understanding of how the Amway world cult operates.

I realize that people might consider joining one of the world cults (Amway, Scientology, or the Moonies) as a potential avenue for advancement, where just belonging places the cult believer in a position to receive the prosperity 'pay off' promised by the cultic kingpin leaders. This willingness helps explain why cult adherents are willing to expend so much of their personal time and thousands of dollars in Amway's closed market swindle? People are indeed 'bamboozled' enough by cult rhetoric into joining the likes of Amway's world cult as a personal 'meal ticket' to 'easy street'? Aren't they really taking a greed inspired journey through the dark-side of the Amway Labyrinth? A place where the the cult adherent's dreams are exploited instead! A place where perversions of faith exist; where the worship of human 'upline' deities is practiced and encouraged.

Possibly there are those who believe joining the likes of Scientology, who number actor Tom Cruise as a member, to be another great career path? Or who might think joining with the Rev. Sun Yung Moon to be a great career option as well?

Richard Devos and the late Jay Van Andel take their legitimate place next to the late L. Ron Hubbard and the Rev. Moon as initiators of the three dominant world cults. These cults universally have sought to buy favor with the United States government through its elected officials, specifically through elected members of the Republican party. Those whose job it is to protect the interests of the American people, like the FTC have allowed these world cults to prey on the American people themselves and to subvert our very government, to the shame of us all.

The Amway World Cult offers adherents a spiritualistic path that actually has little to do with any type of legitimate commercial entity. The Amway 'the business cult' is far removed from traditionally accepted businesses which seek to offer their goods and/or services on a free and open market; Amway operates a monopolistic 'closed market fraud' where the cult adherents are the only legitimate customers for Amway's otherwise unsellable (overpriced) mundane goods. I must point out that Amway is in so many ways comparable to the mafia, and the con it is pulling off by far and away dwarfs Bernie Madoff's Ponzi investment scheme.

Believers in the Amway 'bidnez' are the 'fleeced flock' of captivated suckers in the greatest bait and switch con game ever to be devised or played out on a world stage.

David Brear points out how truly un-original cults are and makes it obvious how they can be more readily understood by an examination of Orwell, history and other failed totalitarian movements like Soviet Russia. In other words, the Amway cult initiators in the United States operate their own version of a totalitarian state and are indeed 'a dangerous power unto themselves' throughout the world. They seek to swindle the likes of the Communist Chinese as well as India--the world's largest democracy, and to subvert the interests of the American people foolish enough to fall for their MLM con. Again, nothing new here as the Costa Nostra mafia has operated world wide for much longer.

Mysticism plays a big part in any cult and is present in Amway's 'puritanical' quasi-religious pulpit. Mysticism, a belief in myths, then serves as the adhesive which dominates the cult follower's thinking and helps bind him or her to the cult. Manipulative mind control is almost universally exerted by all cults, where the altering of the adherent's mind-set becomes chief objective of cultic kingpins whom the adherents are taught to emulate. Indeed the Amway world cult can be defined by its emphasis on recruitment of new adherents, a defining element of all three world cults.

It is possible to draw many distinct similarities between the triumvirate of world cults, all of which aids in understanding their pernicious (harm doing) nature. The pernicious 'harm doing' nature of cults comes from the exploitation of their own cult adherents. The new Amway prospect is soon introduced to the 'tool scam' and the truly maddening Amway psycho-babble rhetoric. Isn't it significant that Amway itself denies being a cult, thus making their denial one of their most successful of reality inverting myths?

Washington Sex Scandals Recalled as Amway Global Launches PR Exploitation of College Interns

Recent blog posts by 'Amway' employee (paid) bloggers out of 'Amway' headquarters in Ada, Michigan have recently sought to attract readers to a series of posts titled 'Interns Expose Amway.'

Wow!

Isn't this really just an 'over the top' PR ploy, an obvious exploitation of 'college interns' which invokes memories of past scandals all involving interns or congressional pages? Who cannot recall Monica Lewinski, poster child for the exploited college intern?

Of course, not to be outdone, any number of Republicans have participated in their own sex scandals; Mark Foley being engaged in gay trists with congressional pages as just one example of numerous scandals involving exploited interns or pages. Not to be outdone, the wizards of PR at Amway Global have also entered the fray and are exploiting their own group of college interns as well. And to think that they really don't have to pay them either is simply insane, funny and ironic! (snicker, snicker)

Interns Expose Amway

The title alone of Amway's PR stunt is an obvious ploy to attract potential 'bamboozled' prospects of their so called business 'opportunity.' The Amway PR geniuses realize that attracting people, who might happen to be looking for any 'hint of scandal' in the Amway 'prosperity plan, might just land on their mushy reality inverting rose smelling 'scamway' 'opportunity zone,' portal to worldly riches in the Amscam bidnez, instead of--let's say?--Scott Larsen's AmQuix pages, the largest collection of information which reveals 'the dark-side' of Amway and the hypocracy of their motivational 'cultic' leaders--especially the likes of Dexter Yager and Doug Wead.

Amway hopes that prospects lured to inspect their 'Interns Expose Amway' and will come away all starry eyed, ready to be led down the primrose path author David Brear describes as the stairs leading to the Amway Labrynith, a crypt full of myth and misery, bunker of Amway apologists also sometimes known as AmBots!

What Could They Have Been Thinking?

Tex, a.k.a. Scott Johnson, Amway apologist, and longtime 'tool scam' critic of Amway's motivational organizations, has also correctly asked 'Amway' (Ada):

"What Were You Thinking?"

Amway, while disregarding and down playing the Tool Scam—-thereby allowing a secondary 'closed market swindle' to operate—-now has the audacity to promote their 'People's Business' by invoking and exploiting of all things, 'impressionable' and 'exploitable' youthful interns!'

Why does Bill Clinton keep coming to mind here?

What a blunder, all within a Utopian totalitarian 'organization' masquerading as a now legit business which has been well known for substantial historical blunders (like the fraud committed against the dignity of the Canadian people) all very similar to the 'Three Stooges-like' Orwellian North Korean totalitarian state's recent 'successful' launch of a communications satellite into orbit?

Robin Luymes, "my gawd man! What's going on up there in Michigan?" The air can't be that rarefied, or is everyone in the Amway PR department smoking crack with the interns, or worse?

Human exploitation in the 'Amway' the business cult is not uncommon. 'Amway' is neither new or unique. Orwellian Utopian states have been accurately described by others. Don't allow yourself to join the ranks of the Amway 'exploited' and 'taken'.

quixtarisacult

'Amway's' Totalitarian Model of Reality

by QCI contributor David Brear:

________________________________

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’


George Orwell (1903-1950)

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All cosmopolitan people accept that North Korea is just about the last, stale bastion of ‘Soviet’-style totalitarianism camouflaged as ‘Communism.’ After the fall of the ‘Soviet’ empire and radical reforms in China, N. Korea could no longer rely on unrestricted access to cut-price raw materials and a guaranteed market for its (otherwise) unsaleable produce. From the mid-1990s, a series of natural disasters devastated agriculture and the highly-secretive State (which is presented externally as a ‘Democratic People’s Republic’) suddenly became obliged (in the face of mass-starvation) to accept international food aid in return for undertaking not to develop weapons of mass-destruction. Although some Chinese-style economic reforms have recently made an appearance, N. Korea remains (effectively) isolated from the outside world. In reality, it is an Orwellian one-party State with inadequate, narcissistic leaders who have attempted to bury the appalling consequences of their crimes and make sure that they cannot be held to account. In a last-ditch attempt to stimulate the failing economy and hold onto power, they have propagated a typically paranoid myth that the homeland is about to be again overrun by aggressive, American-backed, capitalist hordes from S. Korea. The leaders have exploited their subjects’ resulting fear and hatred of outsiders as the false justification for committing virtually 100% of remaining national resources to maintaining the fourth largest standing army on the planet; dissidents are brutally repressed and many subjects have fled to avoid forced military service, imprisonment, assassination or starvation.


Since 1994, N. Korea has been ruled by an absurd, but nonetheless dangerous, dictator, Kim Jong-il (b. 1941), who styles himself as the ‘Dear Leader’ or ‘Dear Father,’ but he might as well call himself ‘Big Brother.’ According to the bleating flock of well-fed apparatchiks at the N. Korean Ministry of Truth (arbitrarily defined as ‘News Agency KCNA’):

By the universal desire of his beloved people, the ‘Dear Leader,’ continues selflessly to build a secure Utopian future of prosperity, freedom and happiness for all.

On April 5th 2009, ‘KCNA’ made the following announcement:

‘Scientists and technicians of the Democratic People’s Republic of N. Korea succeeded in putting an experimental communications satellite, Kwangyongsong-2, into orbit by means of carrier rocker, Unha-2, as part of the State’s long-term plan for outer-space development.’

Although this event was almost certainly the (failed) test-firing of a intercontinental ballistic missile (which violated the existing weapons agreement and led to an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council), over the next few days, the ruling N. Korean regime steadfastly pretended that the news of a successful satellite launch had been enthusiastically welcomed by the international community and that Kim Jong-il had personally received congratulations from fellow World leaders, including the Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Apparently, the North Korean leadership has not yet (officially) informed the Korean people of the fall of the ‘Soviet’ empire.


By physical isolation, and/or by constantly denigrating all external sources of information whilst constantly repeating reality-inverting key words and images, the self-proclaimed Communist Prophets of Plenty, who comprise the N. Korean ‘Politburo,’ have sought to maintain an absolute monopoly of information, and, thus, modify the individual personalities and behaviour of their subjects. For decades, the State has been controlled by a form of ‘political religion’ – based on a fictitious dualistic scenario reflected as fact, in which North Korea alone represents a positive or protective force of purity and absolute righteousness derived from the leadership’s access to a superior knowledge. Therefore, according to the same closed-logic of the puerile two-dimensional narrative, N. Koreans alone oppose a negative or adversarial force of impurity and absolute evil.


The above, in essence, is the inverted ‘us v. them’ model of reality lurking behind all cultic groups and totalitarian regimes (no matter how deceptive their external camouflage).


In a previous article about ‘Jim’ and Tammy-Faye Bakker, I explained that in the Bible, a story is told of Jesus and his Disciples feeding 5000 people with just a handful of loaves and fishes, and of basketfuls of leftovers being gathered after the feast. However, it is important to understand that, in the biblical tale, all Jesus asks for in return, is unquestioning belief in ‘future redemption in Paradise.’ Should some sanctimonious performers (like the tear-jerking Bakker double-act) require of 5000 individuals the same unquestioning belief in ‘Jesus the Redeemer,’ but exploit their faith to extract $1000 per head entrance to ‘The Miracle Buffet,’ then they would gross $5 millions in a lunchtime. Since these self-proclaimed Capitalist Prophets of Plenty cannot possess the superhuman power to turn the finite into the infinite, then, by simple deduction, their activity can only be ‘advanced fee fraud’ (a form of theft). To the eternal shame of the United States, for half a century (and all around the globe), the De Vos and Van Andel clans, and their (apparently independent) associates, have (with the Bible in one hand and the Stars and Stripes in the other) been allowed to get away with committing this, the most absurd, but nonetheless grotesque, of cultic crimes. Sadly the ‘Amway’ racket has reaped not just millions, but billions, of dollars for its instigators.


According to the bleating flock of well-fed apparatchiks at the ‘Amway’ Ministry of Truth:

The ‘Amway Corporation’ is a ‘Purely Commercial Organization’ offering a ‘Proven Business Opportunity,’ and any cultic dimension which might once have been present in its ‘Networks of Sponsorship’ was there without the approval of the ‘Amway Policy Board.’

Given the undisputed fact that (for 50 years) the ‘Amway’ myth has left a trail of debt, depression, dissociation, divorce and even death amongst its core-adherents, the following text becomes truly terrifying:

‘I’m convinced more and more each day that this (‘Amway’) business was God’s idea. What I’m saying is God created this (‘Amway’) business so that we could pull families together and help people — and the Devil does not like that! If you don’t believe there’s a Devil, go on the Internet! Man I’m telling you there’s a Devil! The Devil does not like this (‘Amway’) business! - He does not like the unity in this (‘Amway’) business! All I want to say to you is: guys, if I were the Devil and I saw a business that was keeping marriages together, where that men learned how to love their wife … they’re taught from stage in Leadership sessions how to love their wife … where women are taught how to really integrate the marriage … the husband and wife relationship … where parents are taught how to bring up their children and encourage them to speak life and positive things into them so that those children have good healthy self-images and believe that they can really do anything that they put their minds to do. If I saw a business that was responsible for holding those marriages and families together, and getting people out of debt, and learning how to treat people with dignity, respect and kindness … a business that gave people hope for freedom, hope for their financial future … that a person could not even succeed in this (‘Amway’) business without helping somebody else, and that the more people you help the more money you make… a business that teaches the principles of morals and ethics and integrity, that gives dignity to human life, that validates marriages an institution that should be reverenced that should not be put down or criticised or belittled .… If I saw a business that did all those things and so much more for humanity .… If I were the Devil, I’d hate it with a passion! And I am convinced that not only does Satan hate the Church, I’m convinced with all my heart that Satan has good reason for hating this (‘Amway’) business. He has good reason for hating Dexter and Birdie and every Leader in their organisation. Satan hates this (‘Amway’) business with a passion, because this (‘Amway’) business stands for everything he hates! And if you want to know whose behind those Websites, all I ask you is, who could it be… huh? … Could it be Satan?’

The above is a brief-extract of an intellectually, and emotionally, overwhelming sermon given (in 2001) by pastor Mark Gorman to a closed congregation of American ‘Amway’ core-adherents. The pastor’s typical, totalitarian tirade was taped, then re-recorded onto cheap imported cassettes and finally sold in the USA (at around 1000 % mark-up) as a ‘training tape’ entitled: ‘How to Handle Negative Websites.’ I recovered it from Eric Scheibeler who, in his book, ‘Merchants of Deception,’ explains (in great detail) how, over a period spanning 10 years, he was brainwashed into wasting many thousands of hours, and approximately $100 000, pursuing the ‘Amway Dream’ whilst collecting at least $4 millions for his ‘Network Leader,’ Dexter Yager.


Despite the pathetic protestations of ‘Amway’s’ handful of fanatical Internet apologists (led by David Steadson) that the ‘Amway Business’ is an innocent victim under attack from outrageous lies spread by a jealous minority of violently anti-capitalist lunatics who know nothing whatsoever about commerce or cultism, a veritable mountain of evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that a significant number of ‘Amway’ adherents have been gradually dissociated from external reality and programmed systematically to categorize all free-thinking individuals and any quantifiable evidence challenging the authenticity of the ‘Amway’ myth, as ‘Satanic.’ Tellingly, extreme cultic material has only been available to a tiny minority of transient ‘Amway’ believers. However, the highly-profitable recording (part-transcribed above), is only one of countless millions that have been produced and distributed around the globe by the ‘InterNet Services Corporation’ - an organization registered in the USA as a ‘privately-controlled limited-liability commercial company’ (apparently independent of ‘Amway’), but owned (on paper) by ‘Amway Diamond Distributor’, Dexter Yager - a former beer-delivery truck driver (from Rome, New York) turned self-proclaimed Capitalist Prophet of Plenty (residing in Charlotte, N. Carolina). In fact, the overwhelming majority of Yager’s (declared) multi-million dollar annual income has been proved (in court) to derive from his peddling grossly over-priced books, recordings and tickets to meetings; most of which reflect essentially the same, self-gratifying, dualistic fiction as fact: ‘Amway’ alone represents a positive or protective force of purity and absolute righteousness derived from its leaders’ access to a superior knowledge. Therefore, according to the same closed-logic of the puerile two-dimensional narrative, ‘Amway Distributors’ alone oppose a negative or adversarial force of impurity and absolute evil.


At this point, I should again like to mention former ‘White House Adviser’ (on the ‘Religious Right’ to the Bush administration), Doug Wead, who has recently found it necessary to post more, reality-inverting material on one of his own propaganda Blogs. This includes a particularly creepy contribution from David Steadson (via his cultic alter ego, ‘ibofightback’) in which I am falsely identified as being ‘the original source of incorrect stories’ regarding Wead and ‘Amway France.’ However, Steadson is incapable of specifically refuting any of the accurate and verifiable information published about Doug Wead, Dexter Yager and Jean Godzich. Instead, he merely seeks to denigrate me as ‘a well-known Amway critic.’ Tellingly, Wead still makes sure that the names of his close associate (and fugitive from French justice), Jean Godzich, and the counterfeit company, ‘le Groupement,’ do not feature on his own Blog. In his latest post, Wead casually recounts how he encountered his other close associate, Dexter Yager, and he then goes on to ‘explain’ Yager’s so-called ‘Tools Business.’ Now, if ever there was an American double-act who believed, with a conviction based upon experience, than you can fool all of the people all of the time, then it’s Wead and Yager. That said, in an circuitous attempt to avoid being held to account for his crimes, Wead now reveals that all the ‘best-selling’ books bearing the name Dexter Yager, weren’t actually written by Yager at all: they were penned by himself. After this amazing confession, Wead steadfastly pretends that when he first teamed up with Yager, around 30 years ago, and began to ghost-write all his wonderful life-changing tomes, it was on the understanding that absolutely no profit was being earned on them. Obviously, this is just a direct lie.


In reality, Wead and Yager (and others who I won’t list now) have conspired with the members of the De Vos and Van Andel clans to maintain a self-perpetuating esoteric ritual belief system (based on a perverse plagiarism of traditional Judaeo-Christian beliefs and those of Fraternal Secret Societies) in order to perpetrate, and occult, not only one of the most-pernicious premeditated closed-market swindles of all time, but also a secondary ‘advanced fee fraud’ of even more staggering proportions. Unfortunately for Wead and Yager, all their books and recordings cannot be buried. Any intellectually rigorous examination of this material reveals that it constantly repeats ‘Amway’s’ own reality-inverting key words and images. Indeed, much of it was specifically designed to propagate fear and hatred of ‘negative’ outsiders in order to dissociate the ‘Amway’ faithful from external reality. No matter what they steadfastly pretend to be the truth, all the quantifiable evidence proves that Wead and Yager have inflicted a battery of co-ordinated, devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion on countless persons around the globe. These techniques (which are designed to shut down individuals critical and evaluative faculties without their fully-informed consent) are common to all cultic groups and totalitarian regimes. Self-evidently, this is the explanation of why the likes of David Steadson continue to deny the ‘Amway’ financial holocaust in the face of overwhelming evidence. These people are deployable agents furthering the hidden criminal objectives of their leaders, completely dependent on a collective paranoid delusion of absolute moral and intellectual supremacy fundamental to the maintenance of their individual self-esteem/identity and related psychological function. In simple terms, ‘Amway’s’ most fanatical apologists have become incapable of accepting that they have been fooled by what is merely a game of make believe.


Given the wider evidence, that millions of dollars of graft have been accepted by certain Republican Members of Congress, and by the leadership of the Republican party, from the criminal authors of the ‘Amway’ myth (and from their heirs, spouses and criminal associates), this aspect of the affair alone should now be identified, and prosecuted, as one of the most far-reaching, and sustained, acts of organized corruption in American political history. As stated in my open letter to President Obama (posted on Inauguration Day 2009): In 2001, despite a glaring conflict of interest, President Bush appointed one of ‘Amway’s’ aggressive echelon of reality-denying attorneys, Timothy Muris, as Chairman of the ‘Federal Trade Commission.’ Muris then installed his chum, David Scheffman, as the ‘Chief Economist of the FTC.’ Scheffman also had an obvious conflict of interest, in that he had previously been paid to play the reality-denying role of ‘expert witness’ for an ‘Amway’ clone, ‘Equinox International.’ (In a civil lawsuit filed by the FTC, US government attorneys acting on behalf of the people had rightly claimed that ‘Equinox’ was a vast pyramid scam camouflaged by unsaleable products. Although the owners of ‘Equinox’ subsequently agreed to close their counterfeit >‘direct selling company’ an hand over millions of stolen dollars to dodge further investigation, Scheffman had delayed proceedings by steadfastly pretending that his paymasters’ activities were perfectly lawful, because they were identical to those of ‘Amway’).


It makes one wonder what duplicitous role Doug Wead played in subverting the democratic process. That said, considering the fact that their victims number tens of millions: What crime would it be appropriate to charge the arrogant ‘Amway’ racketeers with?


Since the tactics employed by the ‘Amway’ mob against their fellow citizens, and against the citizens of numerous allies of the USA, are undoubtedly those of psychological, and economic, warfare, then it would seem that there is very compelling case that charges of treason (as defined by the United States Constitution) should be brought, and without further delay. The new Obama administration undoubtedly has the wit, but does it have the courage and integrity to hold all the ‘Amway’ traitors, and their political stooges, fully to account? No matter what transpires, it will forever remain one of the sickest ironies of history that the United States of America, a nation born out of an enlightened rebellion against absolutism, should have poured trillions of tax dollars and the blood of hundreds of thousands of its finest citizens into keeping latter-day absolutism at bay in the 20th century, only have its elected leaders completely fail to recognize essentially the same cancer (albeit in heavy disguise) not just multiplying unchecked in the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,’ but also infecting the rest of the world. Sadly, ‘Amway’ is by no means unique.


What would the authors of the ‘United States Constitution’ have made of all of this?



Copyright David Brear April 2009

Just How Absurd and Dangerous is 'Amway'?

...by QCI contributing author, David Brear


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‘A lie can be half-way round the world before the truth has got its boots on.’


James Callaghan (1912-2005)

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Readers who are unfortunate enough to have come into contact with ‘Amway’s’ handful of fanatical Internet apologists know that their devious motto is:


Always attack, never defend!


At the same time, these financially-illiterate sophists (led by David Steadson a.k.a. ‘ibofightback’ a.k.a. ‘Insider’ etc.) invert reality by excluding all quantifiable evidence to the contrary whilst steadfastly pretending that the ‘Amway Business’ is an innocent victim under attack from outrageous lies spread by a jealous minority of violently anti-capitalist lunatics who know nothing whatsoever about commerce. In support of this typically-paranoid totalitarian fantasy, the apologists (who pose as independent) sneer arrogantly and wield reams of ‘statistics’ the origin of which can only be ‘Amway’s’ own bleating flock of reality-inverting apparatchiks. However, on closer inspection, this mystifying material turns out to be so absurd, that it almost beggars belief that anyone (outside the most-deluded of ‘Amway’s’ unquestioning adherents) can fall for it.


For decades, the ‘Amway’ Ministry of Truth has proudly proclaimed millions of ‘Independent Business Owners’ conducting billions of dollars of ‘Sales’ in dozens of countries. Yet, given the accepted, average annual drop-out rate (approximately 50%), it is possible to extrapolate that, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, tens of millions of aspiring ‘Amway Distributors’ have vanished down the years, to be replaced by an endless chain of wide-eyed would-be millionaires. Only a 1-2% core-group of claimed adherents have remained bedazzled for periods exceeding 5 years and, in the end, even they have abandoned all (false) hope of achieving future redemption in the (non-existent) ‘Amway’ Utopia. Informed readers will notice the remarkable similarity between this ridiculous, self-inflating ‘Amway’ propaganda and that of ‘Scientology.’ Tellingly, the parent ‘Amway Corp.’ (including its ever-expanding labyrinth of subsidiaries) has never voluntarily released any accurate, verifiable information as to what percentage of the organization’s (apparently impressive) global market has comprised authentic retail transactions (i.e. sales to persons who are not transient players of the ‘Amway’ game of make-believe). Sadly, it’s not just the ‘Amway’ faithful who have swallowed these sugar-coated lies. Despite having once paid a total of C$70 millions to avoid extradition and imprisonment for perpetrating the largest tax-fraud in Canadian legal history, the co-authors of the ‘Amway’ myth, Richard (‘Rich’) Marvin De Vos (b. March 4th. 1926) and Jay Van Andel (b. June 3rd. 1924. d. December 7th. 2004), and latterly their heirs, have been fêted as philanthropic billionaire-industrialists and exemplary Christian conservatives by an alarming number of casual observers in the international media and political, legal and religious establishment.


Back in the 1970s, when subjected to long-winded investigation by agents of the Federal Trade Commission (who had apparently twigged that the ‘Amway’ myth is a far too good to be true), it was discovered that ‘Amway’s’ so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ was, in fact, strangely familiar. Exactly like its Soviet namesake, ‘Amway’s’ own ‘Policy Board’/ Politburo (comprising members of the De Vos and Van Andel clans) held absolute control over the means of production, distribution and exchange. FTC agents also discovered that the price and quality of the ‘exclusive’ products being exchanged within ‘Amway’s’ Soviet-style command economy, were maintained in such a way as to render them (effectively) unsaleable on the open market. Contrary to what ‘Amway’s’ own reality-inverting apparatchiks and propaganda constantly repeated, the organization’s grinning proselytisers were about as far removed from being ‘Independent Business Owners’ as it was possible to get. They were de facto slave-recruiters indoctrinated unconsciously to accept the following fiction as fact and to exclude all free-thinking individuals and quantifiable evidence challenging its authenticity:


You can buy ‘Amway’ products at a ‘wholesale price’ and then ‘retail’ them to your social contacts at ‘30% profit.’ This ‘short-term strategy’ is fine for some, but, in the end, it’s a ‘waste of time.’ If you are really serious about making big money, there’s ‘no need to sell anything.’ You can ‘Follow a Proven, 2-5 year Business-Building Plan’ and consume a regular quantity of ‘Money-Saving Products’ yourself whilst offering your friends and relations a ‘Helping Hand’ by bringing them onboard. In turn, your recruits can ‘Duplicate Exactly the same Plan’ and consume a regular quantity of ‘Money-Saving Products’ themselves whilst ‘Helping’ their own social contacts to do the same, etc… as ‘Amway’ undertakes to pay its ‘Distributors’ a escalating percentage commission on the totality of their monthly ‘Business Volume’ and on that of their recruits, and on that of the recruits of their recruits, etc… if the ‘Business Building Plan’ is ‘Followed’ correctly, payments automatically multiply in an infinitely-expanding geometric progression. The more people you ‘Help:’ the more money you earn!


In simple terms, vulnerable Americans (who, for whatever personal reasons, needed to believe in the self-perpetuating and self-gratifying ‘Amway’ myth of ‘total financial freedom in 2-5 years’), were actually being peddled infinite shares in what could only be their own finite dollars. Since the centrally-controlled ‘Amway’ market was deliberately designed to produce no real external revenue, no matter how the cash in that hermetic system was divided by its all-powerful treasurers, it was a mathematical impossibility for the overwhelming majority of its powerless participants to receive a profit. The whole of ‘Amway’s’ fiercely complex ‘Compensation Plan’ was, therefore, nothing more than thought-stopping hocus-pocus, but the po-faced agents at the FTC apparently never fully-grasped how the trick was pulled.


Consequently, after 10 years of less-than-intellectually-rigorous FTC enquiries and hearings, ‘Amway’ was merely fined a derisory sum for ‘price-fixing,’ and its greedy rulers were not only allowed to keep their counterfeit company registered in the USA, but also to expand their counterfeit commercial activities overseas. This was because their attorneys steadfastly pretended affinity with the federal regulators and drafted a ‘rule’ which appeared to oblige ‘Amway’ agents to sell-on at least 70% of their own purchases to non-agents before they could qualify to receive commission payments. Interestingly, the US regulators can’t have been completely duped by this devious tactic, because they also compelled ‘Amway’s’ corporate officers to publish accurate and verifiable information about the actual derisory average levels of commission payments. Obviously, this part-regulation only applied in the USA (where ‘Amway’ recruitment took such a dramatic nose-dive that it eventually had to become ‘Quixtar’), whilst all the subsequent evidence proves that the ‘70% rule’ might as well not exist, because, unbelievably, the FTC omitted to introduce any independent instrument to enforce it, or to warn the regulatory authorities internationally of what had really been occurring in the USA. Thus, when ‘Amway’s’ counterfeit commercial activities were recently investigated in the UK, it was discovered that (just as in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s) the organization’s so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ was, in fact, still a ‘Soviet’-style command economy (centrally-controlled by the ‘Amway’ Politburo in the USA), and that the price and quality of the products being exchanged within it, were maintained in such a way as to render them (effectively) unsaleable on the open market. Approximately 96% (and possibly even more) of all ‘Amway UK’s’ claimed ‘Sales,’ were a puerile fiction. Over a period of 35 years, the secret, rolling failure-rate for powerless participants in the premeditated ‘Amway’ closed-market in the UK was (effectively) 100%. Yet again, contrary to what ‘Amway’s’ reality-inverting apparatchiks and propaganda constantly repeated, vulnerable British citizens were being peddled the same old Utopian fiction as fact. They were also being indoctrinated to exclude all free-thinking individuals and quantifiable evidence challenging its authenticity.


Mysteriously, senior civil servants in Britain’s Ministry for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (who, off the record, freely-accept that it is impossible to make money in ‘Amway’ and that its core-adherents are brainwashed pawns) chose only to challenge ‘Amway UK’ in the civil courts, rather than try to trigger a diplomatically-embarrassing, international criminal enquiry. However, Lawyers acting for the UK government, like their American counterparts, again failed to explain to both the UK High Court and the UK Appeal Court that, without external revenue (due to the deliberately banal quality and exorbitant pricing of products) ‘Amway’s’ so called ‘Business Model’ is fundamentally fraudulent and that the so-called ‘Compensation Plan’ is utter nonsense. This time, ‘Amway UK’ escaped closure by announcing the expulsion a couple of over-zealous ‘Diamond Distributors’ (including Jerry Scriven) as well as steadfastly pretending innocence and by promising to reform its future activities. However, the counterfeit company is now obliged to publish accurate and verifiable information about the actual, derisory, average levels of commission payments, and its current claimed ‘Distributor’ numbers have dropped to an almost insignificant level.


Unbeknown to the UK High Court and Appeal Court, the identical closed-market swindle was uncovered in France in the mid-1980s; when a minority of confused former ‘Amway’ core-adherents approached consumer, and cult, advice associations complaining of massive financial losses and dissociation from their friends and families. At that time, ‘Amway’ dodged official investigation in France by announcing the expulsion of an over-zealous ‘Diamond Distributor,’ Jean Godzich, and around 80 other over-zealous ‘Distributors,’ for breaking the ‘Amway Code of Ethics.’ The company then steadfastly pretended innocence and promised to reform its future activities, but its claimed numbers of ‘Distributors’ fell from ‘90 000’ to less than ‘5000.’ Godzich went on to operate the identical close-market swindle, complete with (effectively) unsaleable products and a ‘Code of Ethics,’ using a mystifying labyrinth of corporate structures labelled, ‘le Groupement,’ before his re-branded, counterfeit commercial activities were challenged.


In the early 1990s, a complaint was filed against ‘le Groupement’ by a government-funded, French, cult advice group, ‘UNADFI’ (National Union of Associations for the Defence of the Family and the Individual), in conjunction with a consumer advice association, the Women’s Social and Civic Union, on behalf of around 300 destitute former core-adherents. This led to a police enquiry. A French parliamentary report soon revealed that more telephone enquiries (almost 1000 per year) were being made to UNADFI about ‘le Groupement,’ than about ‘Scientology.’ Godzich and 12 associates steadfastly protested their innocence, but they were eventually charged with operating a pyramid scam. In the mean time, the counterfeit company was successfully sued in the civil courts by its victims, but its declared assets were insufficient to pay its debts. ‘Groupement’ was bankrupted and compulsorily wound-up in 1995. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Jean Godzich, but he had already escaped to the USA with a large amount of cash. At this time, approximately 1500 deeply-deluded core-adherents picketed the offices of UNADFI in Paris. The building was occupied, files stolen and a senior UNADFI volunteer, Mathieu Cossu, was held prisoner for several hours and obliged to make a video statement that ‘le Groupement was not a cult.’ Prior to this Jean Godzich had tried to give UNADFI a donation one million French francs (approximately 160 000 Euros). When this blatant bribe was refused, Jean Godzich financed the creation of an (apparently independent) ‘anti-mental manipulation association.’ It was generally believed by paranoid core-adherents that Groupement was the victim of an anti-capitalist conspiracy and that UNADFI was a form of extreme-socialist cult itself.


Some of the other tactics used by Godzich to try to maintain his absolute monopoly of information in France were classics of a cultic movement. A code of silence was introduced along with an internal system of dispute resolution to discourage more dissidents from coming forward. Malicious lawsuits were filed against all external critics in which Godzich posed as victim. Traditional culture was infiltrated via gifts to charity, sponsorship of sport, etc.


The criminal case against Jean Godzich (in absentia) and his associates, didn’t come to trial until the Summer of 2000. At this time, no evidence was presented by the prosecution relating to the much larger ‘advanced fee fraud’ hiding behind ‘le Groupement,’ and the pyramid fraud charge was dropped on technicalities. Amazingly, French law recognizes counterfeit ‘investment schemes’ (or Ponzi schemes) without external revenue or profits to divide, but it does not yet accept that counterfeit ‘marketing schemes’ without external revenue or profits to divide are just a more-sustainable variation of essentially the same crime. However, in January 2007, Jean Godzich received a custodial prison sentence (by default) of 3 years from the Correctional Tribunal of Evreux (Dept. of Eure, Normandy), for illegally transferring around 6 millions Euros of his French-registered company’s social funds to the USA (prior to its compulsory closure in 1995). An international arrest warrant was issued for Godzich (a citizen of both France and the USA) and he was given an additional fine of 500 000 Euros for failing to turn up for his trial in October 2006. Three of his former associates were given suspended prison sentences ranging from 8 months to 2 years along with fines ranging from 10 000 to 80 000 Euros.


At this point, I should like to mention former White House Adviser (on the ‘Religious Right’ to the Bush administration), Doug Wead, who has recently found it necessary to post reality-inverting material on one of his own propaganda Blogs, in which he begins to refer to the Godzich/‘Groupement’ affair, but, tellingly, not by name. In fact, Wead’s propaganda (like that of ‘Amway’s’ instigators) is far more interesting from the point of view of what is excluded rather than what is included. That said, Wead casually acknowledges that he was once an ‘Amway Diamond Distributor’ and that he remains a ‘friend’ of Dexter Yager. However, he steadfastly pretends to be an innocent victim under attack from lies posted by ‘Amway critics’ on the Net. Apparently, it has been suggested (by certain ‘critics’) that Wead helped set up ‘Amway’ and then ‘le Groupement’ in France, and that a warrant was issued for his arrest in France. I should like to set the record straight. Although it is true to say that Wead’s name never appeared on any of the incorporation documents of the counterfeit companies that comprised the French chapter of the ‘Amway/Groupement’ myth, his name did feature on countless books, magazines and recordings sold to hundreds of thousands of ‘Amway’ and ‘Groupement’ victims in France (first during the 1980s and then during the 1990s). He even co-authored books with Dexter Yager and Jean Godzich. Wead was also a regular paid-speaker at ‘Groupement’ mass-rallies. Wead was undoubtedly a major beneficiary of a conspiracy to commit, and occult, an ‘advanced fee fraud’ using a mystifying labyrinth of ever-expanding and changing (apparently independent) corporate structures designed to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate beneficiaries like himself from liability. Just as in the UK, it was Wead’s acknowledged ‘friend,’ Dexter Yager, who received the lion’s share of the illicit cash. Whether, he was the final beneficiary, is still a matter of conjecture. Yager led the ‘Amway Network’ of which Godzich and Wead were members. Yager continued to supply the identical books and recordings to Godzich, even after he’d been publicly expelled from ‘Amway France.’ These fraudulent materials were French translations produced by Canadian companies controlled by Yager. In the mid-1990s, French network television journalists traced Jean Godzich to Phoenix Arizona, where they discovered that he and Wead shared an office and that they were both regular ‘Prosperity Gospel Preachers’ at the ‘First Assembly of God.’ During a 10 year period, thousands of deluded core-‘Groupement’ adherents had been peddled grossly-over-priced tickets to visit Phoenix via a Belgian-registered travel agency owned (on paper) by Godzich and his (then) wife. These individuals had received full-immersion baptism into the ‘First Assembly of God’ from Jean Godzich’s brother, Pastor Leo Mark Godzich. The sinister ceremonies were caught on film by hidden cameras, but (when interviewed by a French television journalist) Godzich steadfastly denied their existence.


Given their track records, one would have to be pretty naïve, and/or dim, to believe anything that Messrs. Yager, Godzich or Wead has to say on any subject, let alone ‘Multilevel Marketing.’ Interestingly, Wead now claims to have long-since retired from ‘Amway’ to become a ‘best-selling author and American historian’ However, if by ‘historian,’ Wead means someone who is concerned to discover the truth about the past and to give as accurate a representation of it as possible, then, in respect of ‘Amway,’ he is not a historian. However, Wead is not just another pathetic little narcissist (like David Steadson), steadfastly denying the ‘Amway’ financial holocaust - he’s one of the shameless racketeers responsible for it.


As stated in a previous article, two High Court Judges in the world’s largest democracy have already deduced that what purports to be the ‘World’s Largest Direct Selling Company,’ is actually a global fraud. Exactly the same alarming evidence has been uncovered in India as was found in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, in France in the 1980s and 1990s and in the UK at the beginning of the 21st. century. Confused Indian victims have come forward to complain of massive financial losses coupled with dissociation from friends and family. However, on this occasion, although all the usual devious tactics are being pursued by the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’, and their aggressive echelon of attorneys, in a desperate attempt to maintain their paymasters’ absolute monopoly of information (including the issuing of two malicious, High Court writs to block a police investigation), Chief Justice C.S. Singhvi, and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, of the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, have concluded that ‘Amway’s’ so-called ‘Multilevel Marketing Scheme’ is in breach of well-conceived, Indian legislation (dating from the 1970s) which bans all ‘money circulation schemes,’ no matter how ingeniously they are disguised. The High Court has ordered that the Hyderabad Criminal Investigation Dept. should be allowed to continue to follow whatever procedures are permitted by Indian law to hold the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ to account.


Currently (just as in Britain and France in the recent past), the sanctimonious little gang of Bible-thumping, US-based charlatans behind the ‘Amway’ myth remain out of reach of the Indian authorities. It is to be hoped that the new Obama administration will not permit this pernicious international racket to continue for much longer.



Copyright David Brear April 2009

Amway Seeks to Swindle Chinese Communists Just Like Their Past North American Cult Adherents!

In past posts, British author David Brear has revealed that Amway has operated a fraud in the United Kingdom. Significantly, another blogger in India, Shyam Sundar, has been operating his Corporate Frauds Watch blog to warn his fellow man against the Amway menace. Shyam, a retired journalist, has recently weathered a storm of Amway apologist criticism to include the 'Swedish Swindler', IBOfightback and one very confused 'Tex.' Why are the Amway apologists alarmed about what has been going on in India?

Might it be the two Indian high court justices that have determined in a majority opinion that Amway is in violation of India's 'Prize Chit Money Circulation' law?

As I have reported before, Amway can be arrested in India, the world's largest democracy. I point out that prize chit and money circulating schemes are more commonly described as laws against pyramid schemes in the United States, as well as many other countries.

Amway is reporting that it hopes to improve their Chinese take by 10% in 2009. Of course this public relations propaganda hopes to cloak Amway's true intentions in the Communist world. Amway significantly benefits by...

...what is not known about their American swindle in China!

What Amway Chinese prospects may not significantly know or understand is how Amway historically has 'taken', i.e. swindled, foolish north-American believers in the past. Amway can spin the same deceptive success dream they used successfully to swindle former American adherents--all now quietly blaming themselves for being foolish enough to be taken by Amway.

The DeVos - Van Andel cult initiators have propelled themselves into being very wealthy 'supposed respectable businessmen', who are determined to carry their American Scam to a whole new generation, a world of people, all mostly ignorant of Amway's prior method of operandi in North America. They seek to hide their current state of 'financial holocaust' committed 'stateside' from a globe of billions of prospective new victims. David Brear states that the Ada cult swindlers should be held as traitors of the United States, besmirching the true American way of the American people with their mythical version of a Utopian state, all very similar to another right wing American organization of the Twentieth Century, the Ku Klux Klan--save the lynchings.

The 'American Way' intends to swindle as many naive Communistic men and women as they possibly can introduce their 'shell game-like' swindle.

Significant differences in the Chinese language, as well as very limited access to information via the Internet--all very conveniently blocked by the Communist Party rulers. Amway therefore has a vast, truly gullible Chinese market to exploit. Chinese pawns, mostly lacking in even the most rudimentary knowledge of Amway's vehicle history report, allows the Amway world cult to take full advantage of what I describe as Amway cultic proselytizers 'shooting Chinese fish in a barrel!' Just as David Brear paints a picture of a Amway Trojan horse being delivered up behind the 'city walls' of India; Amway under the guise of 'free enterprise' has parked their 'closed market' monolithic Trojan swindle in Communist China in like fashion. China, not a bastion of freedom by any measure, now all part of the American Way, the American Scam, all with never a single shot being fired.

India sits on the door step of the East and significantly provides some hope that the Chinese Communists will also take notice of what Amway represents in their country. Amway seeks to promote their 'closed market swindle' as a great success, an incredible reality inverting myth; all while the Chinese prospects remain ignorant of what kind of disreputable affair Amway has historically been in the United States and Canada.

To highlight how Amway presents Chinese adherents an incredible get rich opportunity, one that cannot possibly be missed, are the recent Amway junket-like cruises to Taiwan; yes, Taiwan, a bastion of free enterprise, an island which the Chinese Communists have coveted for decades and still significantly desire to possess through potential military force.

Recently I spoke with an exchange student from Taiwan at a wedding reception:

He described Taiwan as basically living under the constant threat of the Chinese Communists. Fear is rampant; Taiwanese freedom is always under threat.

Amway, obviously in 'good relation' with the Communist Regime, has been allowed to sponsor 'junkets' of 'mainland' Amway Chinese 'employees' to visit Taiwan; all a propagandised affair that the Communists and Amway China significantly exploit. Both Amway and Chinese Communists benefit while the interests of the free world are disregarded. What a sad state for 'the American Way' to fall into! Promoting their swindle along side of a Communist regime who seek to bring Taiwan under their rule by force if possible. How very quickly we Americans forget what past Communist Regimes in China have traditionally represented to the United States. Amway apologists disregard how China is diverting such a high percentage of their GNP into armaments and how they maintain one of the worlds largest standing armies, all a very real threat to the only 'American way' I recognize, and my American Way has nothing to do with Amway world cult swindlers operating their primary swindle now with the Chinese Communists!

Wisconsin Moves to Protect Citizens From the Traveling Sales Crew Menace on 10th Year Anniversary of Janesville Tragedy

Janesville Traveling Sales Crew 10 Year Memorial Anniversary




The Associated Press is reporting that Wisconsin lawmakers yesterday “approved the nation's toughest regulations on companies that use traveling crews to sell magazines, soap and other items." For the AP story, click here.

Quixtar Cult Intervention blog readers will recall that I have been an advocate for the passage of this law and have written several blog posts on the topic for which I will provide links at the bottom of this post.

The law, 'Malinda's Law', the nation's first and toughest of its kind seeks to reign in the ‘independent contractor’ loophole which has allowed those who profit from their classless swindles to escape accountability by shifting blame onto those whom they have been exploiting in the first place!

'The door knocking and the direct selling industries shall never be perceived as the same again.'

During the struggle to have Malinda's law passed, a massive amount of information was garnered about how corruption and exploitation intersected at some pretty strange roads. A world of scoundrels was exposed by one man who compiled what became a horror story much too strange to be believed--at least at first. Phil Ellenbecker, from Verona, Wisconsin, is a modern day every man's hero, seeing a wrong and taking action to protect his fellow citizens from victimization through law; succeeding at least in his first step. This writer desires that a similar law be invoke on the federal level. Wisconsin is a great start, but Phil Ellenbecker has said these low life affairs will seek out all the other states, like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and the like to continue their exploitation. Enough is enough. I support the proposed legislation which Wisconsin most likely will present in Washington, and may Mr. Ellenbecker celebrate another victory.

Today, March 25, is the decade anniversary of the fatal traveling sales crew accident that took the life of Phil Ellenbecker's daughter. The governor of Wisconsin will sign Malinda's Law into effect 10 years, 1 day after the Janesville, Wisconsin tragedy.

Rest in peace dear Malinda.

You will forever be in the hearts of the people who've come together in your cause. The love a father has in his heart is the greatest love of all. I can speak from first hand experience from a very recent incident involving my own dear son.

It has only been a few short months since the tragedy near South Bend, Indiana which took the lives of four Amway sales people, friends traveling home from an Amway business gathering. This was an accident, which much like the Janesville, Wisconsin accident, really didn't have to happen. Strangely enough, some of the news articles appearing about the crash describe the youths as 'Amway employees', something Amway would deny. Under Malinda's law these youth would be considered Amway employees, not mere independent contractors, which allows Amway to shirk any responsibilities. May these more recent victims of exploitation also rest in peace.

Significantly enough, traveling together for the selling of 'business opportunities' in Wisconsin was not excluded by amendment, and those non-related Amway registered distributors, 2 or more traveling to sell 'business opportunities' therefore must abide by the Wisconsin laws. Amway cannot represent these youths as 'independents' and just shrug off deaths, potential tragedies as the 'independents' own doing. These costs can now be those of Amway, who may no longer be able to cling to their 'independents' major loop hole in U.S. state and federal law. No longer may any of the other sundry MLM 'snake oil like' supposed direct sellers be able to shirk responsibility toward those who produce their profits--usually at the loss of their own exploited people, all part of the dark side of the direct selling industry.

Amway, in a reality inverting conundrum has always presented themselves to governmental regulators and in the the most recent commercials, as direct sellers, and significantly, potentially of the door to door variety, no different than the run of the mill Bible and snake oil salesmen of the past.

Regardless of how each of these companies operate their particular swindles, if they are part of the door to door selling industry--as they claim to be--then all 'traveling swindles on wheels' like theirs will be regulated by Wisconsin. Rather ironic for Amway I must admit, since they only use direct selling, door to door propaganda as a cover for their advanced fee fraud, which operates more like a common swindle than a blind call type sale. The language of Malinda's law defines traveling to sell 'business opportunities' invokes the protections of the law. Considering what this represents, the declarations, the back ground checks, and the bonding assurances guaranteeing 'employees' pay, as well as inspection of transportation, possibly the car loads of scoundrels touting swindles might reconsider their activities?

It is not unusual for Amway salespeople to travel as many as six to a car 'to tout their business opportunites' in successive locations. One such trip I have first hand knowledge involved 6 unrelated Amway salesmen traveling from southern California into Mexico to sell their 'business opportunities' out of country. Had these fellows been traveling to show their 'business opportunities' in Wisconsin, they would have been in violation of the tenants and protections of the new Wisconsin law, which describes their presence as those of Amway doing business in the state. These traveling salesmen are considered 'employees' of Amway, and the law being designed to protect their significant rights.

Amway, has described their scheme as a direct selling business, which can be sold door to door. Now, isn't it ironic that they should deny that they come under the broad 'brush' of Malinda's Law? The door to door selling part of their propaganda, clearly a con job on governmental regulators and a gullible citizenry, do invoke the protections of Wisconsin's law. The recent highway tragedy near South Bend, Indiana points out how Wisconsin's law has the potential to protect youths, who actually WILL BE considered Amway employees. How existential. Their exploitation being curbed by law. After all these youths risk their very lives to show Amway's business opportunities on the road; and regardless of all of Amway's mind numbing propaganda, the primary product being touted is one of these business opportunities.

Amway, a MLM company is no different than any other disreputable MLM type company wanting to do business in Wisconsin, and therefore cannot claim an exemption. In speaking with Phil Ellenbecker after the new law's passage, he assured me that none of the DSA companies, are excluded from being regulated by this law. This explains the prime reason that the DSA and companies that are part of this disreputable trade association, which include Amway and Kirby, were so incredibly opposed to the passage of this law. The DSA represents many companies who push recruitment scams in hopes of making these new recruits the primary customers for their lotions, pills, creams, health drinks, meal replacement bars, financial software amongst just some of their wares. Amway is just another of these MLM scams offering their business opportunity to any Simple Simon silly enough to listen.

Phil Ellenbecker's struggle has not just been against the fly by night magazine sales contractors, but against those whose corrupt interests and huge resources in money, have opposed the legislation all out of greedy self interest. Of course, Amway standing behind the DSA are the ultimate scoundrels operating what they want regulators to believe is another of these door to door knocking direct selling industries, the Amway world cult. Phil Ellenbecker has exposed how many different corrupt scoundrels intersect at a strange intersection with MLM scammers and with the American Scam!

For those readers who believe that the traveling sales affairs and Amway are so far different as to be comparable; think again, I would like readers to understand that recruitment by Amway and the likes of Southwestern Company goes on competitively at many colleges and universities throughout the United States. Recruitment into a swindle by any other name is still a swindle.

It has been reported that students have mistakenly diverted their tuition funds to fund the Amway prosperity dream, 'a closed market swindle'. Many have been left in the lurch, and out of desperation turned to others hoping to some how remain in school. Amway, as it is preached on colleges, is indeed a threat to the education and well being of those who are gullible to the scam. Amway seeks recruitment fodder amongst the same crop of young people as the traveling sales crews; both groups significantly exploit the same sub group of potential victims. Some schools officials as well as campus newspapers have issued warnings that students should not fall for or engage in MLM recruitment scams as this has been found to effectively endanger one's educational goals.

Congratulations Phil Ellenbecker; may your daughter Malinda rest in peace and may all those touched by this tragedy be somehow warmed in their hearts. All those supporting Phil and his traveling sales bill are an inspiration! I am providing the following links as a dedication to the Janesville victims, both living and deceased. Your light shines on!

Traveling Direct Seller Contrasted and Compared to the Quixtar Amway Business Cult

The Dark Side of The Direct Selling Industry: Kirby, Quixtar, and Traveling Sales Crews

The Horror of Traveling Sales Crews Revisited and A Condemnation of the Modern Direct Selling Industry!

Continued Exploitation of Traveling Sales Crews Supported by the Direct Selling Association

Janesville, Wisconsin Traveling Sales Crew Tragedy Recalled as Amway Youths are Killed in Indiana Crash

Quixtar/Amway Scammers and Traveling Sales Crew Desperadoes

Gary Ridgeway: How to become a better person in Quixtar/Amway!

Amway Cult Youth Initiate’s Deaths Possibly Related to Sleep Deprivation

Alcoholic Acquaintance Finds Work Driving Door to Door Salespeople Around

There is a Traveling Sales Crew Werewolf at the Door Jim!


As details emerge on this most important news story, I will provide updates as they become available. Phil Ellenbecker has provided the following media links:

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/19002876/detail.html

http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=3AD27656-5056-B82A-37BDA2D18A64C157

http://gazettextra.com/news/2009/mar/25/bill-protects-our-kids/

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/41758852.html

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/24/ap6207145.html

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/19002876/detail.html

Lawmakers OK Bill Regulating Traveling Sales Crews
1999 Van Crash Killed 7 People
CHANNEL 3000
WISCTV.COM
Madison, Wisconsin

The Corporate Officers of 'Amway India Enterprises' Risk Prison Sentences

By QCI contributor David Brear


_______________________________

“And the end of the fight

Is a tombstone white

With the name of the late deceased

And the epitaph drear: ‘a fool lies here

Who tried to hustle the East.’ ”


Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

_______________________________


Readers should be interested to learn that, two High Court Judges, in the world’s largest democracy, have already deduced that what purports to be the ‘World’s Largest Direct Selling Company,’ is actually a fraud.


12 months ago, Shyam Sundar (a retired journalist turned advocate) started a Blog, ‘Corporate Frauds Watch,’ to help his fellow citizens of the Republic of India face the ugly truth lurking behind the Utopian ‘Multilevel Marketing’ myth of ‘total financial freedom in 2-5 years - by following a Proven Business Plan.’ Shyam has already collected a significant amount of accurate, and verifiable, information detailing the shameful rise of ‘Amway India Enterprises,’ and its aggressive echelon of attorneys’ typically-devious campaign to dodge investigation following disturbingly familiar complaints filed in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. Here, well-conceived legislation (introduced more than 30 years ago) attempts to list the universal identifying characteristics of financial scams based on the crackpot pseudo-economic theory of limitless, future prosperity simply by handing over your cash and by convincing your friends and relations to the same (commonly-referred to in India as, ‘money circulation schemes’ or ‘prize chits’), no matter how ingeniously these scams are camouflaged. Despite the provocative, reality-denying comments of Internet ‘Amway’ apologist, David Steadson posted on the ‘Corporate Frauds Watch’ Blog (by his cultic alter-ego, ‘IBOFB’ ), with great courage and dignity, Shyam and his associates continue to call on adversely effected citizens to file complaints with appropriate law enforcement agencies. Sadly, in certain instances, the Indian police have been reluctant to follow up these ‘MLM’ cases until compelled to do so by magistrates.


On February 9th 2009, the ‘Amway’ Ministry of Truth proudly proclaimed ‘450 000 Active Business Owners in India selling 1128 Crore (eleven billions) Rupees of products annually - a 40% increase in 2 years, projected to grow by 20% over the next 12 months.’ Sadly, these sugar-coated lies have been swallowed by many casual observers, including members of the Indian financial press. However, in order to put the mainstream media to sleep, all the usual thought-stopping tactics have been employed – expensive magazine and television advertising, gifts to charity, paid association with celebrities, membership of the ‘Indian Direct Selling Association,’ etc. Tellingly, no accurate, verifiable information was offered by the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises,’ or those of the ‘Indian DSA,’ as to what percentage of the company’s (apparently impressive) market comprised authentic, external, retail sales (i.e. to persons who are not agents). It seems that, so far, no mainstream Indian financial journalist has bothered to ask this key question. Yet, just a slightly more thoughtful approach would have revealed that ‘Amway’ is the title for a puerile, but nonetheless pernicious, fiction. For, without a consistent source of external revenue (due to the deliberately banal quality of ‘Amway’ products’ combined with exorbitant pricing), the so-called ‘Proven Business Plan’ is completely unviable and, therefore, fundamentally fraudulent. In the adult world of quantifiable reality, contributing participants in the premeditated ‘Amway’ closed-market are merely being peddled an infinite share of what can only be their own finite money. Furthermore, if the generally-accepted, 50% average, annual, drop-out rate is taken into consideration, we discover that more than 1 million aspiring ‘Amway Business Owners’ have already vanished in India alone. Classically, only a deluded core-group (less than 5%) of ‘Amway’ adherents (usually with access to independent funds) remain bedazzled by the offer of a future, secure, Utopian existence, for extended periods.


At this point, I should like to thank Shyam Sundar for supplying me with the comprehensive documentation that has permitted me to trace exactly how the perverted (quasi-Christian) ‘Prosperity Gospel’ has been allowed to gnaw its way, like a cancer, into the minds of so many vulnerable (non-Christian) Indian citizens.


Back in June 1994, obsequious ambassadors of the US ‘Amway Corp.’ approached the Indian Ministry of Industry (Dept. of Industrial Development) bearing gifts. By steadfastly pretending affinity with officials (who, naturally, wanted to believe that all external investment creates employment), the ambassadors sought an agreement (renewable biannually) which simply paved the way for the creation a privately-controlled, unlimited-liability, commercial company, ‘Amway India Enterprises.’ As a subsidiary (entirely owned by its American parent company), the ambassadors meekly accepted that ‘Amway India Enterprises’ would be forbidden to manufacture or import. The proposed company would be permitted only to use its ‘Proven Multilevel Marketing Business Model’ to sell products sourced from local, independent, Indian manufacturers. Furthermore, ‘Amway India Enterprises’ was obliged to file a separate agreement with the Reserve Bank of India, allowing the proposed subsidiary to transfer capital to, and from, its parent and, thus, act as a de facto, foreign exchange dealer. Consequently, without any real investigation, the Indian Ministry of Industry, Secretariat for Industrial Approval (Foreign Collaborations II Section) rubber-stamped the application for the proposed company (within less than two months) on August 26th 1994. Twelve months later, the company was registered after final approval by the Indian Foreign Investment Promotion Board. In this way, America’s contemporary version of the Trojan Horse was dragged unnoticed into India with the assistance of the country’s own ill-informed regulators. However, it lay dormant until May 5th 1998 when a network of regional offices began to be established. Six years later, the destructive contents finally began to spill out. On August 8th 2004, the (apparently safe) original (biannual) agreement was mysteriously altered (at the request of the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’) allowing the unregulated manufacture, and/or importation, of ‘Amway’s’ own range of (effectively) unsaleable household, beauty and health products. However, at no stage did Indian officials bother to ask how the so-called ‘Proven Business Model’ could possibly work when ‘Amway’ products were now, self-evidently, many times the price of equivalent (and often vastly superior) merchandise widely-available in traditional Indian retail outlets. Yet, implicit to the modified agreement was the understanding that ‘Amway India Enterprises’ would respect Indian law and recruit non-salaried agents who could earn commission payments from retailing products. In plain language, Indian officials were deceived by the de facto agents of US-based racketeers. That said, India is a country where corruption is endemic, and it is not known what other inducements (if any) these conveniently-blind civil servants received.


The guts of above information comes from a landmark judgement given on July 19th 2007 against ‘Amway India Enterprises’ by Chief Justice C.S. Singhvi, and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, of the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. In 2006, the Criminal Investigations Dept. of the Hyderabad police had raided, and sealed, the local offices of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ arresting various employees, following a particularly detailed complaint filed by A.V.S. Satyanarayana under the ‘Prize Chits and Money Circulation (banning) Act, 1978.’ This courageous individual confessed that he had wasted a considerable amount of time and money after having being subjected to overwhelming psychological pressure to join ‘Amway’ by two dominant men in his own social circle. Within three days of the registration of this complaint, lawyers acting for ‘Amway India Enterprises’ issued two writs against the Hyderabad CID. Typically, ‘Amway’ posed as the innocent victim under attack. Ignoring all quantifiable evidence to the contrary, the lawyers steadfastly pretended that their employer’s ‘Proven Business Plan’ was perfectly lawful and that ‘Amway India Enterprises’ was acting with the full approval of the Indian government. Therefore, the Andhra Pradesh police had neither reason nor authority to launch such a heavy-handed investigation, and, thus, damage, a legitimate business. At the same time, both the lawyers and corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ tried to convince the world that Satyanarayana was a pathetic liar who had filed a malicious complaint as the result of a marital/financial dispute which had, itself, resulted in his pursuing a vendetta against members of his family who were ‘Amway Distributors.’ Ironically, it was ‘Amway India Enterprise’s’ own malicious writs which brought the company under the rigorous scrutiny of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.


Simply by applying common sense, Chief Justice Singhvi and Justice Reddy were immediately able to see that ‘Amway’ is far too good to be true. Then, by ignoring the scripted protestations of ‘Amway’s’ attorneys, and by concentrating on the compelling testimony of the victim (backed up by documentary evidence), they deduced that the so-called ‘Proven Business Plan’ is in breach of Andhra Pradesh legislation. Despite the ingenuity of ‘Amway’s’ corporate camouflage, de facto agents of the company actually propagate the self-gratifying delusion that limitless prosperity can eventually be obtained without any effort simply by purchasing products and recruiting others to do the same, etc., ad infinitum. As a consequence, the two writs were dismissed, and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh ordered that the Hyderabad Criminal Investigation Dept. should be allowed to continue to follow whatever procedures are permitted by law to hold the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ to account.





Copyright David Brear 2009