The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection knows that 'MLM' is a lie

Shyam 

I am sure that your free-thinking readers are all very relieved to see that Nikhil Bhatia now realizes that we are not trying to force unsubstantiated opinions on him. We are actually trying to kick-start his own critical faculties. In my usual direct style, I endeavoured to explain to Nikhil Bhatia (man to man) how cultic frauds are maliciously tailored to fit the existing beliefs and instinctual desires of their ill-informed victims, and that this age-old, devious strategy of mental manipulation can give all vulnerable persons who are unaware of how it works, the illusion that they are making a free choice. I also tried to explain to Nikhil Bhatia how his own psychology (as amply-revealed on his own Blog) was an open-book to the manipulative thieves who run 'Amway.' In simple terms, Nikhil Bhatia has already convinced himself that one day soon he will become rich and successful, but only if he remains completely positive in his thinking. So, if some gang of thieves want to manipulate someone like Nikhil Bhatia, it is child play to pretend affinity with his existing beliefs and aspirations. In simple terms, a totalitarian group like the 'Amway' mob act like a reality-inverting mirror which always reflects back a bedazzling 'positive' illusion at its victims - provided these people obey their leaders and do not question the authenticity of these leaders tell them is reality. The moment they start to question, the same dangerous mirror tells them that 'negative' thinking will prevent them from 'achieving success.' Indeed some people have described cult adherents as being like children who have been enticed into attractive vehicles with forward gears and accelerators, but no brakes or reverse gear. These vehicles are heading full-speed over a cliff, but all the signs are marked 'This Way to Paradise.' 

For obvious reasons, all so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing' companies have steadfastly pretended to be wholly legal enterprises comprising networks of non-salaried commission agents who sell good-value products and services to the public for a profit. Nikhil Bhatia had already decided for himself that there are plenty of 'MLM' companies which do not tell the truth. He approached Corporate Frauds Watch politely asking if 'Amway' was one of these dishonest companies. When we confronted him with the ugly reality that all so-called 'MLM' companies have been shielding essentially the same cultic fraud, and that certain senior Indian Judges have already deduced that the American racketeers behind 'Amway India Enterprises' actually lied to Indian government officials in order to get a foothold in India, Nikhil Bhatia didn't want to believe us. However, Indian government officials were deceived into believing that 'Amway' is part of a multi-billion dollar global industry which has offered an authentic income opportunity to the public, and which has been fully-investigated in the USA and given a clean bill of health by the US Federal Trade Commission. 

In the adult world of quantifiable reality, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Despite appearances, the multi-billion dollar question of whether so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing companies' have offered an authentic income opportunity to the public, or have shielded a vast and highly-organized fraud, has never been fully-addressed by the American government or courts. During the 1960s, the orginal 'MLM business opportunity' lie, 'Amway,' began to attract the attention of trade regulators in various American States. By the end of the 1960s, the 'Amway' lie was becoming a national problem and officials at the Federal Trade Commission finally became interested in finding out what was really going on. After 10 years of discussions and investigations, it was discovered by FTC officials that, partly due to an illegal system of fixed prices, virtually no 'Amway'- supplied products and services had been sold to the public for a profit and that 'Amway' was a dissimulated pyramid scheme based on self-consumption and endless-chain recruitment. In 1979, 'Amway' escaped closure in the USA, and its bosses escaped criminal prosecution, when one naive, and/or possibly corrupt, American judge imposed a nominal fine for illegal price-fixing and accepted 'Amway's' attorneys' solemn undertaking to introduce rules which would ensure that 'Amway's' non-salaried commission agents could get refunds and would have to make a majority of sales to the public for a profit, rather than just buying from 'Amway' and recruiting more agents to do the same, ad infinitum (which is unlawful). 

Unfortunately, every free-thinking observer knows that, since 1979,  'Amway's' own rules have never been enforced, because they were never intended to be enforced. Indeed, 'Amway's' own solemn undertaking and rules are self-evidently part of a pattern of ongoing, major, racketeering activity. 

Here is an astonishingly-frank letter from Bruce Craig, an experieced American attorney and former consumer protection prosecutor for the Dept of Justice in the State of Wisconsin. Although he is now retired, in an unpaid attempt to defend his fellow citizens from racketeers, Bruce Craig is still struggling to confront the latest generation of senior officials at the FTC with reality. David C. Vladeck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vladeck , to whom Bruce Craig was writing, is currently the Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. He was appointed by the Obama administration. Prior to this, the FTC had become infested with de facto agents of the 'Amway' racketeers. 

http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/bizoprulerevwrkshp/541181-00009.pdf 

Nikhil Bhatia might be interested to learn that Bruce Craig once examined the audited accounts of 30 000 'Amway' adherents in Wisconin and discovered that: 

- all these persons' so-called 'Independent Amway Businesses' were effectively insolvent.

- the top 1% of the 'Amway' pyramid (at that time known as 'Direct Distributors') were selling virtually nothing to the public for a profit and were making an average net annual loss of almost $1000 each.

- all active 'Amway' adherents denied external reality and claimed to be selling products and services to the public for a profit. 

David Brear (copyright 2011)