The 'MLM' racket has been feeding stolen money to 'dominionist' groups

From 'The Universal Identifying Characteristics of a Cult' (Axiom Books, copyright David Brear 2005)

Deception. Pernicious cults are presented externally as traditional associations. These can be arbitrarily defined by their instigators as almost any banal group (‘religious’, ‘cultural’, ‘political’, ‘commercial’, etc.). However, internally, they are always totalitarian (i.e. they are centrally-controlled and require of their core-adherents an absolute subservience to the group and its patriarchal, and/ or matriarchal, leadership above all other persons). By their very nature, pernicious cults never present themselves in their true colours. Consequently, no one ever becomes involved with one as a result of his/her fully-informed consent.

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Numerous  'Amway Diamonds' have been core-adherents of the 'Assemblies of God,' and/or an organization known as the 'Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI).'

In the past, the 'Amway' racket fished many of its American victims from within the many congregations of the 'Assemblies of God' and other 'neopentacostalist/dominionist' churches, where 'Multi-Level Marketing' was openly sold as an 'entirely-ethical Christian Business Opportunity' by members of the 'FGBMFI.' Indeed, many 'Amway' victims were already conditioned to defer unconditionally to the imaginary moral and intellectual authority of their Ministers. As such, in its original American version, 'Amway/MLM'  can be described as a 'neopentacostalist/dominionist affinity' fraud, perfectly-tailored to fit the existing 'Prosperity Gospel' beliefs of its economically-aspiring, mostly-white, male, Protestant victims.

Richard and Helen DeVos

Dick and Betsy DeVos

The DeVos clan, has been one of the most-important financial backers of 'dominionism' in the USA. This extensive transfer of stolen money has been largely-conducted through the 'Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation' and the 'Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.' 

Betsy DeVos is the sister of 'fundamentalist Christian' and  'dominionist,'  Erik Prince, the instigator of 'Blackwater.'

Luis Palau

As well as the Ministry of televangelist, Luis Palau, 'Dominionist' groups listed as being in receipt of 'Amway' cash include:

-  The Coalition for National Policy

-  Focus on the Family 

-  Traditional Values Coalition

-  Foundation for Traditional Values

-  Campus Crusade for Christ

-  Prison Fellowship Ministries

-  Gospel Communications 

-  Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services (a 'dominionist'-run 'mental health' facility)

 - Ave Maria School of Law (a dominionist law school)

-  Coral Ridge Ministries

In 2005, it was reported that 'DeVos Foundations' had officially given more than $5 millions to 'dominionist' groups. 

'Amway Diamond,' Dexter Yager,  has been another important contributor of stolen cash to 'dominionist' organizations. 

Pastor Doug Wead with President Bush

Pastor Doug Wead  c. 2010

'Assemblies of God Amway Diamonds' have included, Pastor Doug Wead, who at one time was a White House adviser to President George Bush. Wead is credited with teaching Bush how to identify with 'dominionist' voters and with introducing Bush to 'dominionist' leaders.

Pastor Leo Mark Godzich

Jean or John Godzich

It is interesting to note that US-based 'dominionist' groups have been in receipt of cash stolen from all around the globe. So-called 'MLM direct selling' companies have also been used as Trojan Horses to recruit non-Americans into the 'Assemblies of God.' Doug Wead has been a long-time associate of former 'Amway Diamond' Jean (or John) Godzich and his brother, 'Assemblies of God Pastor,' Leo Mark Godzich. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1T657rMOiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbhlUnzEA2g&feature=related

Currently, Doug Wead and Jean Godzich are promoting an 'Amway' copy-cat 'MLM income opportunity' racket known as 'Xango' in which an endless-chain of victims have been persuaded to hand over regular payments in exchange for an effectively-unsaleble fruit juice (promoted as a 'health tonic'), and to recruit their social contacts to do the same. 'Xango' seems to have been particularly active in Russia, where Doug Wead and Jean Godzich have been making regular visits.

Pastor Leo Mark Godzich baptizing a French 'GEPM' adherent, 1994

Jean Godzich ostensibly ran the same 'dominionist/MLM income opportunity' racket in France during the 1990s behind a corporate labyrinth known 'GEPM' or 'le Groupement.' A media investigation revealed that numerous core-adherents of 'GEPM' had also been persuaded to buy over-priced tickets to fly to the USA where they were secretly baptised into the 'First Assembly of God' by Pastor Leo Mark Godzich in Phoenix Arizona. Previously, Jean Godzich had been an 'Amway Diamond' in France and 'GEPM' was originally formed by approximately 8000 followers of an 'Amway Network' summarily-excommunicated from 'Amway' after being described as a cult by the French media. However, since 2007, an international arrest warrant has been outstanding for Jean Godzich, after he was convicted (in absentia) and sentenced to 3 years prison in France, and fined 500 thousands Euros, for illegally transferring around 6 millions dollars of his 'GEPM' company's social funds to the USA prior to it being declared bankrupt by a civil tribunal in 1995. 'GEPM's' capital assets were deemed insufficient to cover its debts after it had been successfully sued by a substantial group of destitute former 'Independent Business Owners' on the grounds that it was a fraudulent pyramid scheme. Mysteriously, all criminal charges of fraud against 12 'GEPM' leaders were first dropped after a brief trial held in the city of Evreux, Normandy, in 2000. However, one of the legal advisers to the prosecution was a representative of the so-called 'French Direct Selling Association,' of which 'Amway' was a member. Tellingly, Jean Godzich (who held French and American passports) had already fled to the USA (from where he cannot be extradited) in order to avoid being held to account in France. 

French media analysis of the 'GEPM' labyrinth
 (published 1994, under the title 'A Business with the Flavour of a Cult')

Despite the result of the trial in 2000, between 1987 and 1995, approximately 300 thousands French and Belgian citizens were churned through the 'GEPM' closed-market swindle and related advance fee frauds a.k.a. 'tool' scam. The illegal profits (which were secretly exported by Jean Godzich and his 'GEPM' associates, via a labyrinth of corporate structures, to Doug Wead and his 'Amway Diamond' associate, Dexter Yager, in the USA, without payment of tax) certainly totalled hundreds of millions of dollars, but no rigorous criminal inquiry has ever been pursued into what actually lurked behind 'GEPM.' 

In the face of media investigation and exposure (triggered by complaints gathered by the French cult advice Association for the Defence of the Family and Individuals, ADFI), in November 1994, approximately 1500 paranoid 'GEPM' adherents, including some employees of 'GEPM,' descended on ADFI's offices in Paris. The building was occupied for several hours, documents stolen and a senior ADFI volunteer, Matthieu Cossu, was obliged to make a video statement that 'GEPM' was not a cult. Prior to these disturbing events, Jean Godzich had tried to give a 'donation' of one million French francs to ADFI. When this was refused, he financed the creation of a reality-inverting association to 'campaign against mental manipulation.'

Yet again, when the wider-picture is examined, the 'MLM income opportunity' fraud known as 'GEPM,' and Jean Godzich's attempts to obstruct justice and isolate his US-based bosses from liability, are revealed as being only a small part of a pattern of ongoing, major racketeering activity (as defined by the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970, and clarified by subsequent US Supreme Court judgements).

In plain language, 'GEPM' was just one of a herd of corporate,Trojan Horses used to bypass the rule of law in individual states around the world, and steal billions of dollars from tens of millions of ill-informed victims, whilst the gang of narcissistic American thieves who directed the construction of this vast and mystifying criminal enterprise, and who continue to distribute a proportion of its illicit profits to their de facto criminal associates within the American political and religious establishment, have (so far) not been held to account.

David Brear (copyright 2012)