Sherman Unkefer, 'MLM income opportunity' racketeer exposed.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2014-06-12/news/sherman-unkefer/

Sherman Unkefer is a classic narcissistic charlatan, his criminal activities can be traced back more than 30 years, but thanks to the determination of his step-sons, Harley and Mark Davidson, he is only just now being held fully to account. Unkefer has been deeply involved with blame-the victim 'MLM income opportunity' racketeering in general, and with 'Xango' in particular.


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Once upon a time in the wonderland of 'Xango,' when modern western medical science didn't have a clue what to do and the Angel of Death was hovering, behold there was a miracle.

Some casual observers have believed that all the absurd 'MLM' propaganda (like that contained in the above kitsch 'Xango' videos) is not particularly dangerous; that is, until they have compared it with quantifiable reality:

The following testimony was sent to me by Mark Davidson who, along with his brother, Harley, witnessed just how lethal total belief in an absurd Utopian 'MLM Income Opportunity' fairy story can be.


________________________________________________________________________

'Harley and I have been warning people about Xango for years. Much like you, our experience with Xango and the whole MLM cult mentality comes from our own personal experience via a family member, our mother. Unfortunately the con job perpetrated by Xango and more specifically Dr. Templeman cost my mother her life. I can honestly say that Xango and Dr. Templeman killed my mother.

Sharon Davidson Unkefer (1940-2008) died as a result of the twin guided-delusions that modern western medical science is a scam controlled by big drug companies, and that massive doses of ($40 per bottle) 'Xango/Mangosteen Juice' can cure cancer.

In June of 2008, a CT scan revealed a growth on my mother's spine. The doctor reviewing the scan indicated that it was more than likely cancer and advised her to seek immediate professional help from a qualified Oncologist. I know, I was in the room.

'MLM' racketeer and chief  'Xango' quack, Dr. Templeman
http://xangoconfidential.wordpress.com/

What my mother did instead was contact Dr. Templeman, the self proclaimed mangosteen expert and medical researcher who was a personal friend and a paid pitch man for Xango.

Dr. Templeman is a retired MD (Family Practitioner) from Utah and also the father in law of the brother of one of the Xango founders. It is Dr. Templeman's literature claiming the amazing cancer curing Zanthones found in Xango that prompted the FDA warning letter in 2006. http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2005/ucm076067.htm

Dr. Templeman's forte is to essential blur the lines between junk science and dubious personal anecdotal stories with very small published scientific data. Being neither a published researcher nor ever having spoken at any credible institutions of health or science, the wannabe Jonas Salk routinely claims that Xango cures cancer. The crowds he claims he has spoken to are merely attendees at Xango corporate functions. Considering the average income for MDs in the US is around $60,000* a year he's got a pretty good gig as a paid Xango executive flying the globe and being treated like a rock star at luxury hotels, exotic vacation destinations and tropical cruises.

(* At the beginning of 2014, the official average income for a General Practice family MD in the USA, was approximately $101 736 - $141 431 http://www.healthcare-salaries.com/physicians/medical-doctor-salary-md).

What Dr. Templeman did upon learning of my mother's illness was to immediately fly out to her home, again I was there, and proceed to sell her on the notion of using an alternative health clinic and treating her cancer with massive doses of Xango. The alternative clinic is currently under criminal investigation. Needless to say, my mother was dead by mid August (two short months). What I witnessed during those two months was nothing short of criminal behaviour by a pack of greedy egomaniacs with absolutely no medical experience in treating cancer or any serious disease.

Even if you disregard the fact that Dr. Templeman is not a trained Oncologist or even licensed by the state of Arizona to practice medicine, the treatment she received was abominable! The basic minimal protocols of dealing with a deadly disease like cancer (pathology, staging diagnosis, treatment and pain management options) were never followed! The egomaniac Dr. Templeman acted as the primary physician and specialist and cut off all contacts with any of the doctors she was seeing. This, in and of itself, violates the most basic of all protocols in which the primary physician, especially Family Practitioner's, refers patients to specialists trained in specific diseases once that disease is diagnosed.

I can speak with some authority on this subject because in September of 2012 I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. I by no means claim to be an expert, but I can tell you through personal experience and dealing with numerous experts from Oncologists, Radiation Oncologists, Surgeons, Technical and support staff who deal with this daily is that my mother was cheated out of her fighting chance to beat cancer.

I was constantly asking questions and doing my own research and the bottom line is, unfortunately, the vast majority of people "suckered" into the alternative health cures are stone cold dead. I chose the traditional route and after both chemo, radiation and major surgery, I am in remission. Thank God for modern medicine and shame on those that advocate the hocus-pocus ancient Chinese secret cure for every thing that ails you.

The false hope and phony health claims of companies like Xango is an incredibly dangerous public health issue and is often overshadowed by the financial woes of it's victims. MLMs like Xango are a two sided coin that either leave you broke, dead or both.

Sharon Davidson Unkefer was married to convicted conman, turned exemplary 'Xango' millionaire shill, Sherman Unkefer. http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2010/08/sherman_unkefers_71_million_re.php

My mother was not only the top distributor for this company, she was one of the true believers and bought into the whole "Cancer Conspiracy" that big drug companies and the American Cancer Society are suppressing natural cures that companies like Xango preach at every opportunity meeting. It's all bullshit by a gang of the most egotistical criminals, con men and liars the world has ever seen. But then again, you know this story all too well.

My brother and I, along with some other associates, have done a massive amount of research on this company and their product. The facts we have obtained would make your head spin. The amount of lies and deceit from giving themselves phony charity awards, criminal records, sick personal behaviour, constantly cheating the system they themselves have created and false medical claims abound. You hit the nail on the head when you called them cults!

A lot of the information I have not only comes from personal experience (witnessing my mother's involvement and 20 year roller-coaster ride of a whole slew of MLMs) but from legal documents uncovered through personal research and a personal lawsuit I am currently involved in. 

I hope at some point there might be enough of an outcry from the public to pass some real legislation that shut these companies down and ban all forms of MLMs. Unfortunately, the brainwashed masses who prop up these criminals continue to grind their way to a slow financial death with a big phony smile plastered on their faces and a "dynamic" opportunity to share with the world. Keep up the good work

Mark Davidson (copyright)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtgwZvpzT1M

According to the authors of the frighteningly-familiar 'XANGO'  fairy story:

'XANGO, LLC, was founded in 2002, and is a privately-owned international network marketing company based in Lehi, Utah. The company markets and distributes XANGO Juice, a blended juice product consisting of mangosteen and other juices, and skin care, personal care, energy supplement and nutritional supplement products formulated with botanical ingredients. Since 2008 XANGO been selling more than $1.5 billions annually of products via more than one million distributors in 27 countries'

In the adult world of quantifiable reality, 'XANGO' has been the deceptively kitsch 'commercial' label hung over the entrance to a  dissimulated 'Prosperity Gospel'  cultic, blame-the-victim, closed-market swindle, or pyramid scheme, and related advance fee frauds. Inside this progressively-incomprehensible and expensive- to-play game of Utopian make-believe, an endless chain of ill-informed victims have been told that they can achieve unlimited health, wealth, happiness, etc., simply through exactly duplicating the 'positive' example of 'Xango winners' (like Sherman Unkefer) and buying a regular quota of 'XANGO' products each month whilst recruiting their own social contacts to 'duplicate the same lawful MLM sales and marketing plan.' 

http://www.xango.com/recognition/distributor-recognition

In theory, profits automatically multiply as an individual 'Xango Distributor's' own network is built through geometric progression. In practise, other than the insignificant number of schills at the top of the recruitment-chain, the hidden overall rolling insolvency/churn rate for the so-called 'XANGO income opportunity,' has been 100%.

'XANGO' orgy of deluded self-gratification, Taiwan 2010

The 'XANGO' racketeers have been stealing money from the citizens of the USA, as well as those of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad, United Kingdom and the Ukraine.  http://www.xango.co.uk/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2525317/Xango-Presentation-English

Like the latter-day snake oil pedlars they are, deluded 'XANGO' adherents have recited a precisely-worded script which pretended more than 20 human health benefits for their unique star product, 'XANGO' juice, including 'anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-ulcer, anti-hepatotoxic, anti-rhinoviral and anti-allergic effects.'  Promotional material for the product merely states that 'research has been carried out' into XANGO's capacity to prevent all manner of illness, from leukemia, tumours and diabetes to Parkinson's disease, depression and fatigue, and that  'antioxidants from the inedible rind of fruit provide health benefits.' However, there is no independent research-based evidence to prove any of these vague, and/or essentially meaningless, anecdotal claims. Consequently, 'XANGO' has already attracted the attention of the Federal Drug Administration and widespread criticism from within the medical profession.

Reminiscent of 'Nutrilite Double X' (concocted by Carl F. Rehnborg in the 1940s),  'XANGO' juice is just an inert blend of mangosteen aril and pericarp purée with juice concentrates of eight other fruits: apple, pear (juice and purée), grape, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, cranberry and cherry. Other ingredients include citric acid, natural flavour, pectin, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate and patassium sorbate. Unfortunately, since 'XANGO' products have comprised cheaply-procured common substances, but offered at exorbitant fixed-prices (e.g. 750ml of 'XANGO'juice is almost $40), they have been effectively-unsaleable on the open-market. 'XANGO' juice is at best a harmless placebo, but due to its price, the liquid is the eqivalent of a valueless amalgam of shiny base-metals being offered at the cost of pure gold.

'XANGO' Internet propaganda

No matter what childish drivel they spout in defence of their egos, the overwhelming majority of people who have regularly handed over their cash in exchange for 'XANGO' wampum have clearly only done so under the delusion that they were duplicating a proven plan to achieve 'financial freedom forever;' for there is absolutely no quantifiable evidence that a significant quantity of 'XANGO' wampum has been retailed to the general public for a profit by 'XANGO' adherents. Indeed, the organization itself does not dispute this fact, but, like those of 'Amway,' 'Herbalife', etc. ,'Xango's' officers illogically claim that their company's products are bought solely due to value and demand.  Self-evidently, because the so-called 'XANGO MLM income opportunity,' has had no significant or sustainable revenue other than that deriving from its own constantly-churning, insolvent participants, its instigators have been operating a dissimulated closed-market swindle, in which losing-investments have simply been laundered as 'sales.' From all rational points of view, 'XANGO' wampum might as well not exist. 

Chart depicting Bernie Madoff's claimed '18 years of constantly-expanding profits' (in red)

'XANGO' boss Gary Hollister

Exactly like Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, Reed Slatkin, etc., the instigators of the 'XANGO' racket are narcissistic, economic alchemists who have bedazzled their victims with an avalanche of pseudo-scientific/financial hocus-pocus, in order to peddle them infinite shares of their own finite money. Amazingly, at the same time as Bernie Madoff was still steadfastly pretending tobe running the 'World's Largest Hedge Fund,'  the bosses of 'XANGO' began boasting that they were running the 'World's Fastest Growing Business.' 

Charles Ponzi

Ironically, in 1920, Charles Ponzi was also steadfastly pretending to be running the World's Fastest Growing Business, called the 'Securities Exchange Company.' By peddling worthless pieces of paper in denominations up to $50 000 (on which he personally signed a 'guarantee to refund bearers their initial investment + 50 % interest in 90 days'), within less than one year, Ponzi had collected more than $20 millions (the equivalent today of approximately quarter of a billion dollars). For months, people (including many police officers) were literally queueing to give Ponzi their cash, falsely-reasoning that nothing so large and visible could possibly be a fraud, and, anyway, if Ponzi was a crook, he would have been immediately arrested.

Doug Wead preaching
 the perverted 'MLM Prosperity Gospel'

Other than the fact that the two cultic rackets are essentially identical, the 'XANGO' bosses were at one time directly linked to the 'Amway' bosses via Doug Wead and Jean or John Godzich. Classically, victims of the initial 'XANGO' fraud have been deceived into buying publications, recordings, tickets to meetings, etc., on the pretext that these 'materials/tools' contain exclusive secrets, vital to achieving success. At the same time, victims have been drawn into the universal, blame-the-victim, closed-logic, cultic trap, in which they have been conditioned to visualise their 'dreams and goals' as future reality and to believe that they can only achieve the redemption of 'financial freedom forever' through exactly duplicating the 100% positive (i.e. unquestioning) belief and behaviour of their redeemed, multi-millionaire leaders. Thus, few victims have complained, because they have falsely-believed that failure to succeed in 'XANGO' is solely the fault of the individual who didn't believe totally. Sadly, most core-victims have been deceived into joining 'XANGO' by their own friends and relatives and, in turn, they have tried to deceive their own social contacts, making the ego-destroying truth even more difficult to face.

In order to further shut down the critical and evaluative faculties of victims and casual observers, the instigators of the 'XANGO' racket have used a proportion of their ill-gotten gains to infiltrate traditional culture. e.g. In November 2006, 'XANGO, LLC,' became the main corporate sponsor of Real Salt Lake (one of N. America's most-successful professional soccer clubs) in a 4 year deal costing  between $500 000 and $1 million per year. In 2006, the company gave a 5-year, $1 million grant to Orem, Utah arts council, for naming-rights to what is currently called the 'XANGO Grand Theater.' 

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (b. 1934)

Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff (b. 1957)

'XANGO, LLC,' has been the main contributor to the political campaign of Utah Senator, Orrin Hatch, giving $47 200 in 2008 and $46 700 in 2006. However, Orrin Hatch and various members of his family (in the 'lobbying' business) have been in receipt of huge quantities of stolen cash deriving from 'XANGO' and other similar 'Mormon' owned corporate structures registered in Utah. Indeed, the de facto agents of 'MLM income opportunity' racketeers have had a hand in writing an amendment to Utah State legislation, exempting 'MLM' schemes from common-sense statutes which previously banned all endless-chain, pyramid frauds. The Republican, 'Mormon' Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, who supported this amendment (SB 182), has been heavily-backed by Utah-based 'MLM' racketeers. Furthermore, Shurtleff has been a speaker at 'MLM' orgies of deluded self-gratification. http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2007/08/utah-attorney-general-improperly-endorsing-usana-health-sciences/  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv-H096uZHU

'MLM donations' to Mark Shurtleff, 2008

Orrin Hatch being paid to promote fraud at 'XANGO' HQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/politics/21hatch.html?pagewanted=all

It almost goes without saying that Orrin Hatch is also a Republican and an adherent of the 'Mormon Church.' He is a qualified attorney who has served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and as a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In the recent past, Orrin Hatch has had aspirations to become a member of the US Supreme Court. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch

Yet again, when the wider-picture is examined, 'XANGO' is revealed as being one 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); for without significant or sustainable external revenue, all so-called 'MLM income opportunities' have been variations of essentially the same cruel lie which has been repeated so often, that many people have come to accept it as the truth.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgYWIhkhpHI

http://romneyfacts.com/money.php?emp=XANGO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0H-NFeBco8

Again, it almost goes without saying that Mitt Romney has been receiving stolen money from the 'XANGO,' latter-day snake oil pedlars who continue to pose as 'Latter Day Saints.'

David Brear (copyright 2014)