FTC issues a mountain of cheques to compensate 'Herbalife (HLF)' victims (in the USA).

Warning

More than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that what has become popularly known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' is nothing more than an absurd, cultic, economic pseudo-science, and that the impressive-sounding made-up term 'MLM,' is, therefore, part of an extensive, thought-stopping, non-traditional jargon which has been developed, and constantly-repeated, by the instigators, and associates, of various, copy-cat, major, and minor, ongoing organised crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim closed-market swindles or pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites'), and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate training and motivation, self-betterment, programs, recruitment leads, lead generation systems,' etc.).

David Brear (copyright 2017)

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http://kfoxtv.com/news/local/ftc-sends-checks-to-those-cheated-by-herbalife

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbalife-checks-20170110-story.html

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/money-back-350000-herbalife-distributors

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2017/01/redress-checks-compliance-checks-lessons-ftcs-herbalife

• US 'Herbalife' victims who lost their time and money will get only a bit of their money back.

US federal trade regulators are currently posting a mountain of compensation cheques to around 350 000 US citizens who all wasted their time and money in the 'Amway' copy-cat blame-the-victim 'Direct Selling/MLM Income Opportunity' cultic racket known as 'Herbalife' which, for decades, has been hiding in plain sight behind effectively-unsaleable, pseudo-medical (wampum) products.

However, no one now seriously disputes the overall number of persons who have been defrauded by the bosses of the 'Herbalife' racket (since the organisation was first instigated) runs into tens of millions around the globe; whilst the amount of money stolen totals many billions of dollars .

The cash being given to these relatively few US victims comes from the mere $200 millions of stolen funds that the 'Herbalife' racketeers eagerly agreed to hand back last July in order to settle a short-sighted complaint by the Federal Trade Commission that their company had duped the American public by claiming that anyone could get rich. After a two year investigation, federal trade regulators finally concluded that effectively every single US 'Herbalife' participant has failed to generate an overall net-profit. However, I would contend that this is the common-sense point from which the federal investigation into 'Herbalife' should have started, not finished.

Most of the compensation cheques are only for sums between $100 and $500. The largest payments are more than $9,000. These payments only take into account what victims have directly handed over to 'Herbalife,' not their own expenses or money lost in allied frauds. They certainly don't take into account any related emotional/social damage.

Amazingly, regulators say they relied 'Herbalife's' own records to estimate which victims in the United States lost the most. Those currently receiving refunds, handed over at least $1,000 to 'Herbalife' between 2009 and 2015.

'Herbalife's' bosses pretended at the time of the FTC settlement in July 2016, that many of the FTC’s allegations were completely unfounded, but that they had decided to settle to avoid 'the financial cost and distraction of protracted litigation.'

NB. 'Herbalife' Victims don’t need to file a claim with the FTC. 

The FTC has said that people should automatically receive their compensation cheques by Jan 20th. Those who believe they should have received a refund, but haven't, can get information at ftc.gov/herbalife or by calling (844) 322-8146.

With an irony close to exquisite, this week the FTC has warned the American public to :

be wary of so-called multi-level marketing programs in which recruiters claim you don’t have to worry about successfully selling the company’s products, because you can make money by recruiting others into the business.

David Brear (copyright 2017)