Wake Up Now goes after its former head: Sues ex-CEO Kirby Cochran, et al for $70M

Only a few days ago did I report that Wake Up Now (WUN) may be heading for eternal slumber. Turns out, it's got some last gasp yet, but only to drag down somebody with it.

You heard it here, folks (thanks to BehindMLM for breaking the news)  Wake Up Now wanted to take down someone with them, and that would be their former CEO Kirby Cochran (resigned October 16, 2014), as well as Elaine Cochrane (wife of Kirby, ex-legal counsel), Nathan Cochrane (son of Kirby, also ex-WUN staff) and some guy called Juan Carlos Lozano (Mexico area WUN leader).

However, by the various titles / headings used in the complaint, this was clearly written as a PR piece, not a legal complaint, as it contains such gems as:

• Kirby Cochran Gets His Nose into The WUN Tent
• Kirby Cochran Infiltrates WUN 
• Kirby Gets "Loving Brother" Gary C. In On The Action
• and so on 

Still, looking past the titles, it's clear that WUN painted an interesting story... they claimed that Kirby Cochran basically allowed WUN to go public by merging with one of his existing companies, and in doing so, basically took it over from the inside, and proceed to give his wife and son cushy positions doing little to nothing, contracted his brother as a consultant to eat up all the profit, then spent more money scrapping the old system for a new one, which didn't work. Upon resignation, Kirby Cochran allegedly solicited many top people in and around the company to launch a new one, ignoring the non-compete agreement and went after all the foreign IBOs, mostly by allegedly spreading lies and defaming WUN. 

But how true is this? 

Is "Wake Up Now" heading for eternal slumber?

After that "This American Life" expose on Wake Up Now, it seems there's an internal revolt going on, and the company had ground to a halt, if you believe the postings from various WUN affiliates. Highlights include:

• Eric "Seemore Green" Turner claimed WUN owe him $300K and he hadn't been paid since August 2014.  (You'll recall Eric was heavily mentioned in the TAL episode)
• Another affiliate, Logan Shippy, uploaded an video claiming the company had "let you guys down", "burned so much trust with so many people", and he's not going down with the ship. 

Previous reports stated that WUN had lost 8 million in 2012 and 2013. 

EXPOSED: "Wake Up Now" sells dreams to people who can't afford it in cult-like atmopshere

This American Life, a NPR radio / podcast, has a segment on "Wake Up Now", a business that "inspires" people into joining and making big bucks via cult-like mass media events, while its own PR chief says "we want people to make 5-600 a month", and most people don't make even that, according to its own income disclosure statements. WTF?

Listen to it yourself:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/543/wake-up-now?act=1#play