MLM NEWS AND ABSURDITIES, WEEKEND of 22-MAR-2014

Cover of GoodFellas

In various MLM News and Absurdities... We have 3 events to cover.

RAY LIOTTA (the actor) SUES NERIUM, CALLED IT "PRODUCT-BASED PYRAMID SCHEME"

Ray Liotta, best known for his role in "Goodfellas", is pretty famous for having a somewhat pocky-face. One can imagine his outrage when some before/after photo on social network popped up claiming that his face is now MUCH smoother, thanks to some products by "Nerium".  And this was repeated from October to December of 2013, and may still be happening. So he sued, and he outright stated that Nerium is a "product-based pyramid scheme" in the lawsuit.

Nerium claimed it had no knowledge of such photo or alleged endorsement and will investigate.

And thanks to Rod "MLMWatchdog" Cook, here's the lawsuit itself.

COMMENTARY: Don't EVER make up **** like this without getting it straight from the company, not upline, not sales leader... STRAIGHT FROM THE COMPANY! Now somebody will pay the price.

OLD NEWS? TelexFree was also in Trouble in Colombia and Croatia

Search news archives revealed that Colombia had been investigating TelexFree since late February 2014.

In Bucaramanga, researchers have three ongoing processes. One of them is related to the company Telexfree, presented as a system of marketing and advertising for technology.

The Commissioner of Police, General Rodolfo Palomino, said this is the third alert the authorities launched the community not falling into deception.

Also in February, a newspaper in Croatia revealed that TelexFree had been recruiting in Croatia as well, with secret meetings and last-second cancellations.

"Simple earnings at home", "Fast internet earnings" and other enticing ads flooded the small advertising newspapers lately, offering the possibility of great additional income with a few hours of clicking the mouse at home. 
really sounds tempting, and certainly among the most publicized earnings over TelexFree - let's call it so - system, which has launched a company registered in Brazil and, according to the people who promote it, spread it around the world. 

So if you ask where your money is coming from if you are earning in TelexFree... the answer is... everywhere except your country... just as your money went to someone else, probably NOT in your country.

Related articles

• BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda called TelexFree "money laundering cartel"
• TelexFree Under Investigation In USA
• Scam Absurdities: What Sann Rodrigues of TelexFree do NOT want you to know about his past
• More Bizarre TelexFree Affiliates In Brazil: TelexFree Ice Cream

UPDATED BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda called TelexFree "money laundering cartel"

Rwandan officials blocked $6 million Rwandan francs from moving out of country by TelexFree, a Rwandan investigator told Rwandan Eye News.

Ministry of Trade and Industry representative indicated that the company [TelexFree] has been laundering money, evading taxes and exploiting Rwandans to the benefit of its foreign owners. MTI had formally banned the company from operating recently.

UPDATE: New figure puts the figure at 7 BILLION Rwandan francs, equivalent to 11.3 million USD, transferred out of Rwanda to Germany and the US.

Article also stated that Tanzania already banned TelexFree.

Related articles

• BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree under investigation in Africa
• BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree cancels recruitment seminar on Jersey
• WTF is TelexFree trying to do in Brazil?
• Scam Absurdities: What Sann Rodrigues of TelexFree do NOT want you to know about his past

Bad Argument: I follow the leader who made lots of money in MLM (now with more Vemma busting)

One of the frequent arguments by followers of a particular MLM is s/he is following "leader X", who has already achieved rank Y and thus is a proven leader.

Actually by following a "leader" means your own chance of making decent money is WORSE, not better. The higher the leader is ranked, the lower your chance of success. This may sound counter-intuitive, but let me explain. And we'll use a real company's numbers as example.

Here is Vemma's 2013 income disclosure statement. PDF LINK  And here's the graphs:

The graph is extremely misleading, because not only did they split the graph in half with very different scales, you should also note that the vertical axis in both graph is exponential, instead of linear. Which disguises the disparity between the bars.

Here's what it would look like if it were combined and using linear scale:

You're welcome to check out the spreadsheet yourself and compare it to the original linked above.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ah3DLelonjNqdFpUWmNwNEJBcFdjYmZudHdTS21rMUE&output=pdf

What's interesting from the data and extrapolation shows...

BREAKING NEWS: Kevin Trudeau gets 10 year sentence

Kevin Trudeau gets 10 year sentence for 6 separate contempt of court and stiffing the court 37 million in fines.

Kevin Trudeau had been scamming for DECADES with bogus books, bogus sales, bogus minerals, bogus nutrition, bogus diet, and various types of bogosity for decades. He claimed that last few months in jail changed him and he owned up to everything and he's very sorry and blah blah blah.

Judge didn't believe him.  Please see related article below for story about his prior scams.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-kevin-trudeau-sentenced-20140317,0,832577.story

Related articles

• Kevin Trudeau Will Face Jail for Lying on TV... AND Stiffing the Court of Penalties
• MUST READ FOR MLM-ERS: What CAN You Say (and NOT say) In Online Ads
• Rich Dad on Ponzi:Kiyosaki really doesn't know anything
• How to Fake Being Infallible (and how to spot such fakes)

BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda banned TelexFree, Uganda may be next

Uganda's ambassador to Rwanda just tweeted Rwanda's official ruling on TelexFree: it's BANNED! And he's asking Uganda to ban this quickly too!

Thanks to BehindMLM for the lead. 

Oh, and here's the official signed order, thanks to PatrickPretty.com for the link and photo.

BREAKING NEWS: Italy fined Vemma, Organo Gold, and Asea 500K Euros for pyramid scheme and false claims

Flag of Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Italy's Financial Regulators (Guardia di Finanze) Special Market Protection Unit, Anti-Trust Group, just issued fines to Vemma Italy (100K Euro fine), Asea Italy (150K Euro fine), and Organo Gold Europe (250K Euro fine) for "unfair business practices" (i.e. pyramid sales) of pushing illegal MLM beverage business.

Asea and Organo Gold got extra fines because they also made unsubstantiated health claims. Asea apparently claimed their product strengthens the immune system, promote healing process, and reduce harmful effects of free radicals. Organo Gold apparently claimed that their ganoderma mushroom made it effective in prophylaxis of nerve diseases, vascular diseases, and cancer, without side effects.

http://www.helpconsumatori.it/acquisti/vendite-piramidali-antitrust-decide-multe-per-500-mila-euro/79331

Related articles

• Bad Propaganda: Perpetuating Myths and Misunderstandings to Deflect Criticism
• Evil MLM: Spend Your Own Time on MLM, not your "day job" Time!
• Alarms Raised at Colleges Over Pyramid Allegations of MLM Vemma
• Just what *are* Your odds in Vemma? Is there an "insider's club" in Vemma?