'MLM' is not a business and will never be a business

Shyam

You are right to be scandalized by the fact that the 'Amway' racket continues in India. Sadly, when the wider picture is examined, we see that just one front company shielding the global 'Amway' racket, is currently on trial in one State in India, whilst the ultimate beneficiaries of this front company have not been Indian citizens. However, major organized crime groups, like the 'Amway' mob, have been set up to prevent investigation and isolate their bosses from liability. Furthermore, the billionaire bosses of the 'Amway' mob have spent decades infiltrating traditional culture.

The thought-stopping terms: 'MLM', 'direct selling', 'business opportunity', 'business model', 'Independent Business Owner', etc., have been repeated without challenge so many times, that even persons critical of 'Amway' and its copy-cats, now use them unconsciously. Yet, in respect of what has actually happened (i.e. tens of millions of ordinary people wasting many billions of dollars over a period of 50+ years to the benefit of a few charlatans), these terms are childish drivel.

Never forget, the bosses of the 'Amway' mob have had almost limitless quantities of cash available to them to hide the truth. The US Republican party, in particular, has received enormous influence-buying bribes from the DeVos and VanAndel clans and their criminal associates. Former senior US politicians, including former US presidents, have been given fat payments to appear at 'Amway' rallies, etc. It would now be more than embarrassing for the nation, if the FBI were to launch a full-scale enquiry into where all this graft actually came from. However, the lawyers acting for the plaintiffs in the recent Pokorny RICO lawsuit in California, worked out exactly from whence the 'Amway' bosses' wealth has always derived - from major, ongoing, racketeering activity which was disguised as an 'MLM business opportunity'. Consequently, these criminals willingly agreed to hand over a total of US$155 millions in order to prevent this well-informed private prosecution from going to trial.

The longer the 'Amway' mob have survived without rigorous official investigation into their 'business opportunity' racket in the USA, the easier it has become for them to pretend that 'MLM is authentic.' By remaining out of jail for more than half a century, these thieves have almost arrived at a point in N. America where it has become unthinkable that they are thieves. The average person in the USA instinctively knows 'Amway/Quixtar' to be an absurd way of losing your shirt, as well as all your friends, but the same average American still refuses to accept that 'Amway/Quixtar' is an ongoing major organized crime group and an ongoing menace to democracy.

David Brear (copyright 2011)

Amway is continuing the crime while under trial for the same offence

People belonging to more than twenty countries are now following the Corporate Frauds Watch (CFW) blog on any given day. Since so many people of different countries have been reading the contents, CFW want to know an important issue.

In any jurisprudence, no person who was booked while committing a crime, should be allowed to commit the same crime and if he commits again the punishment would be increased. Not only that if the accused commits the same crime while under trial for committing the same offence, the judiciary would certainly frown upon him.

But interestingly, a strange phenomenon is happening in India. Amway India is facing a criminal case under the provisions of the Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 in the Nampally Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Hyderabad after the Andhra Pradesh High Court held that the business model of Amway India is nothing but a money circulation scheme. However, the Amway India has been indulging in the same business model cheating the gullible all over the country. Though no person is guilty unless otherwise proved in a court of law, the Andhra Pradesh High Court refused to accept that general principle in the case of Amway India.

Our readers are requested to inform the Corporate Frauds Watch whether such thing happens anywhere in the world.

Canadian police and regulators have sanctioned racketeering

Shyam

I thought that you and your free-thinking readers might like to examine some remarkable evidence which proves that Canadian police officers and regulators have failed to enforce laws enacted by the Canadian parliament which prohibit pyramid schemes . This takes the form of letter which was sent to Arlan Galbraith (the criminal-owner of 'Pigeon King International') by David Thornton in August 2007. http://crimebustersnow.org/html/pigeon_king.html

In brief, David Thornton informed Mr. Galbraith that he knew him to be running a pernicious pyramid scheme disguised as a 'business opportunity' which was destroying people's lives. David warned Mr. Galbraith that he would do everything in his power legally to expose him as a dangerous charlatan, and that he would not be intimidated into silence.

As you know, David Thornton is a courageous Canadian whistle-blower whose urgent concerns about 'MLM business opportunity' fraud have been ignored by the Canadian police and regulators for many years. Indeed, by standing up to, and trying to warn his fellow citizens about, Canadian crooks (like Arlan Galbraith and Alan Kippax), David Thornton has been doing the job of the Canadian police and regulators. I have previously described David Thornton as an unsung Canadian hero, being punished by cowards for acting in defence of his country.Consequently, it beggars belief that Mr. Galbraith was not arrested until December 2010 for running, and concealing, a serious fraud which he started in 2004 and which David Thornton had clearly uncovered in 2007. I would be very interested to know if there is any ongoing official investigation into why certain Canadian police officers and regulators turned a blind-eye to this obvious racket, eventually enabling Mr. Galbraith to cheat around 1000 persons in the USA and Canada out of an estimated $20 million.

Furthermore, in order to sustain his racket, Mr. Galbraith spread rumors that he would pursue private prosecutions (for 'defamation' ) against anyone challenging the authenticity of his'business opportunity'. Yet, RICO legislation also defines the intimidation of witnesses (including the filing of malicious lawsuits against them) as being part of an pattern of racketeering activity. The same legislation makes it a criminal offence for an attorney to file a malicious prosecution against witnesses to racketeering, on behalf of racketeers. I would also be very interested to know if there is any ongoing criminal investigation into the role played Mr. Galbraith's attorneys and accountants. Surely, they must have known that they were being paid with stolen money.

David Brear (copyright 2011)

Behind the decoy ducks and pigeons lurks the same 'business opportunity' lie

Shyam

Even if they are not corrupt, Police officers in the small Indian town of Gadval, can have no valid excuse for failing to investigate your timely complaints about the unoriginal scam disguised as the 'Duck Development Society'. All they had to do, was take a quick look on the Net. and they would have found extensive reports of virtually the same feathered fraud in N. America. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/02/pigeon-fraud-galbraith.html .They would also have discovered that concerned Canadian citizens went to the police, but their urgent concerns were also consistently ignored.

In the final weeks of 2010, a crack-pot economic alchemist from Ontario was finally arrested and charged with defrauding around 1000 victims in the United States and Canada via a ridiculous pigeon-breeding Ponzi scheme. Arlan Galbraith (62), the owner of 'Pigeon King International,' deceived people (mainly struggling farmers) into buying flocks of essentially-valueless pigeons for up to $500 a pair. He did this by steadfastly pretending that his company would keep buying the resulting, endlessly-multiplying birds at a guaranteed, high wholesale price to be retailed to the public as a luxury prepared-meat. Victims were led to believe that they couldn't lose and that they should bring all their friends and relations onboard, but it was these would-be pigeon-breeding millionaires who ended up being plucked. Despite timely-complaints to the Canadian police and regulators that Mr. Galbraith was a charlatan running a Ponzi Scheme disguised as a 'business opportunity,' initially no action was taken to protect the Canadian public. Indeed, this chronic regulatory-failure gave credibility to what the Canadian police and regulators should have immediately recognized as a pernicious lie, long before it spread to the USA. It has been estimated that Mr. Galbraith illegally acquired about $20 millions, beginning in 2004. At one stage, Mr. Galbraith's own employees tried to blow the whistle on him.

In 2008, Canadian regulators were obliged to take action when 4 American States issued warnings to the public that 'Pigeon King International' was a scam, and banned all further advertising and recruitment activities. Only then, were Mr. Galbraith and his fake company bankrupted, but it has taken until now to have him indicted as a thief.

In recent years, Canada has become a haven for 'business opportunity' racketeers, where corrupt police officers and officials are known to have played leading roles in promoting and protecting various closed-market swindles. To the eternal shame of the people of Canada, courageous whistle-blowers have been more likely to be arrested than 'business opportunity' racketeers. Yet, not only does Canada have legislation which clearly outlaws money circulation schemes, it also has powerful anti-racketeering legislation designed to stamp-out corruption which was copied from the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970. However, this apparently-impressive Canadian legislation is worse than useless, because it has never been rigorously enforced against 'business opportunity' racketeers..

The Indian people should take notice, because, if your government passes a law, but then your police and regulators do not enforce it, your government has authorized the very crime which it would seek to prohibit.

David Brear (copyright 2011)

Duck Development Society vanishes with Rs. 500 million

The organisers of Duck Development Society has decamped with Rs. 50 crore public money much to the chagrin of hundreds of thousands of investors. The Corporate Frauds Watch informed the police of Gadval, a small town in Telangana area of Andhra Pradesh last year that it is a fraud and is going to cheat people. For reason better known to them the police kept silence over the issue and now people have become victims.

The Prakasam district-based Society induced the gullible to invest in their duck rearing units all over rural areas of Andhra Pradesh with handsome returns. It had even given post-dated cheques to the investors. In all pyramid schemes, the organisers repay the early investors from the money invested by the latest investors. Here also is the same case.

Attracted by the huge returns, people invested heavily and now they are crying over the shoulders of one another.

The modus operandi of these tricksters is age old. The investors have to pay Rs. 21,000 and they would get back Rs. 36,000 in about 100 days. The organisers of the scheme said that they would purchase ducklings in the name of the investors and rear them for three months. After three months the grownup ducks would be sold and the investor would be paid out of the sale proceedings.

The organisers have procured sprawling premises to rear ducks with the money from the investors and started payments to the early investors. Naturally, the money started pouring in.

Last year Corporate Frauds Watch has taken up the issue with the police officials. The CFW was directed to contact the circle inspector (CI) of Gadval town and the CI assured prompt action over the complaint of the CFW. The CFW told the police that the organisers of the Society could approach any Commercial Bank for implementing their scheme if it is that profitable. The Bankers would be too happy to finance the scheme. Instead they have chosen to raise deposits from public which is against the laws of the land, the CFW has argued with the police. It is all in vain now.

The investors in Ongole, the district headquarters of Prakasam district launched an agitation demanding back their investments. There is little chance they would get back their investments.

The 'Amway' golden calf is a cruel illusion

Shyam

I see that your Blog has been visited by a certain Abhijeet Mantri - another poor little fellow bedazzled by the 'Amway' golden calf.

Based on the organization's own claimed numbers of adherents and declared annual drop-out figures, it has been extrapolated that, during the previous 50+ years, as many 40 millions persons - like Abhijeet Mantri - have already been churned through the closed-market swindle arbitrarily defined by its instigators as the 'Amway Business Opportunity'. More than 50% of these persons never renewed their first annual contract, and less than 5% managed to remain under contract for more than 5 years. Other than piles of effectively-worthless materials, 100% of them never received an overall material benefit from their so-called 'Businesses.' The insignificant minority of grinning 'Amway' decoys who were constantly advertised by the organization as perfect examples of 'success,' were either insolvent dupes or wealthy liars - the majority of whose vulgar prosperity secretly derived from a secondary fraud commonly-referred to as the 'Amway Tool Scam'.

From his intellectually-castrated reaction to your thought-provoking Blog, Abhijeet Mantri would appear to be a chronic 'Amway' worshipper who has been dissociated from external reality and reformed into a de facto slave furthering the hidden criminal objectives of the billionaire bosses of the 'Amway' mob in the USA. At the present time, he is completely dependent on a collective, paranoid delusion of absolute moral and intellectual supremacy.

Meanwhile, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, because the overwhelming majority of customers for 'Amway's' over-priced wampum have always been the temporary 'Amway' worshippers, rather than the public, the 'Amway' golden calf has always been a cruel illusion made out of the temporary worshippers' own gold. In other words, the overwhelming majority of 'Amway' participants have failed to make a profit, because it was a mathematical impossibility for them to do so. Indeed, this dissimulated, illegal money circulation scheme has already been clearly identified by senior Indian Judges. However, this crime only came to the attention of Indian Judges when the bosses of the 'Amway' mob arrogantly attempted to use their stolen wealth to obstuct an ongoing criminal investigation in India.

As you know Shyam, the 'Amway' fraud has been maliciously designed to blame its constantly-churning victims, who generally prefer to remain convinced that they were'Independent Business Owners' rather than face the ego-destroying reality that they were de facto slaves who were manipulated by their own instinctual desires. This is why so few of them file complaints.

Thus, if my analysis is correct, Abhijeet Mantri will continue to recite the reality-inverting 'Amway' script and insist that:

'Amway' is the 'Best Business Opportunity in the World' and not a fraud

Anyone criticizing 'Amway' is a 'Loser' speading false rumours.

'Amway' products are all wonderful and good value.

'Amway' products are being retailed to the public in significant quantities, etc.

Abhijeet Mantri will also continue to regurgitate closed-logic excuses to explain why he has never seen, and is unable to supply, any independent quantifiable evidence to support the reality-inverting 'Amway Business Opportunity' fairytale.

Perhaps we should remind Abhijeet Mantri that the billionaire bosses of the 'Amway' mob have just agreed to hand-over a total of $155 millions to halt a major class-action lawsuit in California which was filed against them under US federal anti-racketeering legislation (the RICO Act 1970). The former de facto slaves on whose behalf this suit was filed, were all once deluded worshippers of the 'Amway' golden calf. They have now returned to the adult world of quantifiable reality, and I sincerely hope that Abhijeet Mantri will soon find the strength of character to join them.

David Brear (copyright 2011)

Police have powers to raid premises of Amway and its copycats

Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 bans the organising of Prize Chits or Money Circulation Schemes. Section 7 of the Act empowers the police to enter, search and seize, if necessary by force whether by day or night any premises which he has reason to suspect, are being used for purposes connected with the promotion or conduct of any prize chit or money circulation scheme in contravention of the provisions of the Act.

When the enactment has clearly given the powers to the police, Amway India's counsel contended, "Even assuming that the police are satisfied that the petitioners are indulging in money circulation scheme, they cannot high-handedly interfere with the business of the petitioners till the criminal court after a full fledged trial holds the petitioners guilty of the offence alleged against them."

The AP High Court held, "We have carefully considered this submission of the learned counsel. It is well settled principle of criminal jurisprudence that no person shall be presumed to be guilty until his guilt is proved, but we are unable to accept the broad submission of the petitioners that till the conclusion of the criminal case the police have no power to interefere with the business activities of the petitioners."

So the Andhra Pradesh High Court held that the police have powers to stop the business of Amway.

All these crooks employ the same method of obstructing justice challenging the Section 7 of the Act.

In the Apple FMCG case also the petitioners sought for the direction of the judiciary to stop the police from surveillance of their meetings. The Madras High Court held, " In this part of India, people are gullible and fall an easy prey to the tall promises made through the media. The petitioner is not entitled for direction for prohibiting the authorities from keeping surveillance over any meeting. Section 7 of the Act confers the right on the police officer to enter any premises, where he has got a reason to suspect that the premises are being used for purposes connected with the promotion or conduct of any prize chit or money circulation scheme."

The Apple FMCG also contended that there have been no complaints against the company from any distributor. However, the Madras High Court held, "The mere fact no complaints were received does not make an act legal, if it be otherwise illegal."

It is clear that the police have every power to stop the illegal business of all these multilevel marketing or referral marketing or network marketing or direct selling which are nothing but illegal money circulation schemes. Be it Amway, Herbalife, Forever Living Products, Tupperware, AMC India, Hindustan Unilever Network Ltd and others, they are all liable to be punished under the provisions of the Act.