Commentary: How MLM affects the current presidential campaigns

While politics is usually quite far from the world of multi-level marketing, presidential campaign is big enough that anything anybody ever did figures into the equation, and in this case, two of the presidential candidates have direct ties to MLM... Donald Trump, and Ben Carson.

Those of you who had watched "Celebrity Apprentice" should recall that ACN, the MLM telephone company, was featured on the show... twice.  And Donald Trump even had his own MLM, "Trump Network", which nobody hears about any more.

What you may not remember is Ben Carson previously offered testimonial that Mannatech stuff helped him in his battle with prostate cancer... since 2004.

And let's not forget how big some of these MLM businesses are... and they donated HEAVILY to Republican candidates of all levels. It's already documented that co-founder of Amway, Richard DeVos and two family members donated 25K per person to Scott Walker's campaign AND unknown amounts to Jeb Bush's campaign. When Mitt Romney ran he had support of Amway, NuSkin, and Xango, all big name MLMs.

So, what are some facts about ACN and Mannatech, and perhaps, related to Donald Trump and Ben Carson, that you don't know, but should?

Let's start with ACN and Trump

ACN / Trump

Did you know that in 2010, the average ACN Canada participant takes home about $41.00 per month? That's directly off their website:

"The average ACN Canada active IBO in 2010 earned approximately $500." -- ACN Canada website 

As it is 2015, and there is no update, clearly the figure had not risen (and may even have FALLEN!)


Did you know that despite ACN having sponsored Celebrity Apprentice twice, Donald Trump was quoted by Wall Street Journal of saying, "I (Trump) know nothing about the company (ACN) other than the people who run the company, I’m not familiar with what they (ACN) do or how they go about doing it, and I make that clear in my speeches."

This is also interesting considering that Trump allegedly boasted to WSJ that for a speech at an ACN event he got $2.5 million back in 2008, and pocketed another $1.3 million for 3 more recent (and presumably shorter) talks at ACN events.

Anti-Scam: Rough Guide to Spotting Shady Opportunities, Part 1 of 3.

This guide is an adaptation of "A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science" by "Compound Interest", converted for spotting "shady opportunities". For length reasons, this is presented in 3 parts. This is part 1 of 3.

A Rough Guide To Spotting Shady Opportunities  (part 1 of 3)

Shady Opportunities are out there, waiting to take your money on promises of fabulous income... if you hand over your money first. There are twelve signs. Obviously a shady opportunity may not have all the signs, but the more signs you spot, the more shady the opportunity is.

1) Sensationalized Headlines

Headlines are often click bait or link bait, such as "everyone makes money" or "How to turn $289 into $1040 guaranteed"

As Carl Sagan said, "extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence". Don't believe the headlines, even if they are made/repeated by people you trust. Remember, they could have been duped. If they don't bother asking for extraordinary evidence, then you cannot trust their judgement on this specific matter.

2) Misinterpreted results

Nothing beats DIRECT access to the data. If you listen to someone's pitch, you are listening to his or her version of what s/he is telling you, which may be just a sales pitch with certain amount of untruth... truth as s/he know it, or the actual truth. You don't know which one it is, or even how much of each.

Without the actual data, any interpretation is just that... an interpretation. You may look at the same data and reach a completely different conclusion.  Much like these two gents used the same data and came to opposite conclusions.

NEWS UPDATE 03-JUN-2014: Burnlounge is a pyramid scheme (duh); Merrill about to flip on Wanzeler in TelexFree case? Rippln + Mannatech = ?!?!?!

Remember folks, get your news from REPUTABLE news sources (which I link to) so you can decide for yourself, rather than just one-sided narrative by unknown people.


Burnlounge appeal rejected by Federal Appeals Court

Burnlounge appeal of their 2012 judgement as a pyramid scheme was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming that they are indeed, a pyramid scheme.

My short profile on Burnlounge:
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/09/scam-study-burnlounge.html

In their decision, the court stated that:

The district court found that because purchasing a package was required for participation as a Retailer or Mogul, and because Moguls earned cash for selling packages, “[Moguls] by default received compensation for recruiting others into the program.”

The 9th Court's decision can be read here:
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2014/06/02/12-55926.pdf

The short of it is, if you claim you sold something and are getting paid for that, but in effect you recruited and the recruits are required to buy something, then  your claim of sales is invalid... You are getting paid for recruiting, not selling.

What is interesting is the court's decision reaffirmed Webster vs. Omnitrition as a precedent, but it's no surprise as it's also the Ninth Court that made the Omnitrition decision.

You can read my summary of Omnitrition case here:
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2014/01/mlm-dictionary-omnitrition-case_30.html

This would have some profound impact on some very big players in network marketing that relies on recruiting 'self-consumers' who then recruit more self-consumers to make themselves rich. Those who emphasize retail sales by sales teams should not be affected.