Donald Trump's ongoing 'MLM' racketeering activities.

'Multi-Level Marketing' Warning

The following deconstructed analysis has been formulated to sharpen the critical and evaluative faculties of all unwary persons approaching 'Multi-Level Marketing' from the dangerous (subjective) point of view that it must be a business, rather than from the safe (purely-objective) point of view that they don't really know what it is.

_________________________________________________________________________

More than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that:

• the widely-misunderstood phenomenon that has become popularly-known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' (a.k.a. 'Network Marketing') is nothing more than an absurd, non-rational,  cultic, economic pseudo-science maliciously-designed to lure unwary persons into de facto servitude, dissociate them from external reality and not only steal their money, but also deceive them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap. 

• the impressive-sounding made-up jargon term, 'MLM,' is therefore, the misleading title for an enticing structured-scenario of control which has been developed, and constantly acted out as  reality, 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 'Long Cons*'  - comprising self-perpetuating rigged-market swindles**, a.k.a. 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.).

• Apart from an insignificant minority of shills (whose leading-role in the 'Long Con' has been to pretend that anyone can achieve financial freedom simply by following their unquestioning example and exactly-duplicating a step-by-step-plan of recruitment and self-consumption), the hidden overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' has always been effectively 100%.

________________________________________________________________________

*A 'Long Con' is a form of fraud maliciously designed to exploit victims' existing beliefs and instinctual desires and make them falsely-believe that they are exercising a completely free-choice. 'Long Cons' comprise an enticing structured-scenario of control acted out as reality over an extended period. Like theatrical plays, 'Long Cons' are written, directed and produced. They involve leading players and supporting players as well as props, sets, extras, costumes, script, etc. The hidden objective of 'Long Cons' is to convince unwary persons that fiction is fact and fact is fiction, progressively cutting them off from external reality. In this way, victims begin unconsciously to play along with the controlling-scenario and (in the false-expectation of future reward) large sums of money or valuables can be stolen from them. Classically, the victims of 'Long Cons' can become deluded to such an extent that they will abandon their education, jobs, careers, etc., empty their bank accounts, and/or beg, steal, borrow from friends, family members, etc.

_________________________________________________________________________

** The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 50 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward). 

Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability.

Meanwhile an insignificant (permanent) minority direct the 'Long Con' - raking in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market and by controlling/withholding all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results from its never-ending chain of (temporary) de facto slaves.

Although cure-all pills potions and vitamin/dietary supplements, household and beauty, products have been most-prevalent, it is possible to use any product, and/or service, to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle. There are even some 'MLM' rackets that have been hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at fixed high prices). Some 'MLM' rackets have included 'cash-back/discount shopping cards, travel products, insurance, energy/communications services' and 'crypto-currencies' in their controlling scenarios.

No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractees who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.

I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.

Part of the key-information that all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these contractees. 

When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for anyone to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.

Although a significant number of 'MLM' front-companies (like 'Vemma', 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing', 'Wake Up Now') have been shut-down by commercial regulators, some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' ,'Herbalife', Forever Living Products' ) have continued to hide in plain sight whilst secretly churning tens of millions of losing participants over decades.

The quantifiable results of the self-perpetuating global 'Long Con' known as 'Multi Level Marketing,' have been fiendishly hidden by convincing victims that they are 'Independent Business Owners' and that any losses they incurred, must have been entirely their own fault. 

Blog readers should observe how (in the above linked-videos) chronic victims of 'MLM' cults are incapable of describing what they were subjected to in accurate terms. Even though they are no longer physically playing along with the 'Long Con's' controlling-scenario, they unconsciously continue to think, and speak, using the jargon-laced 'MLM' script - illogically describing themselves as 'Distributors.' 

Chronic victims of blame-the-victim cultic rackets who have managed to escape and confront the ego-destroying reality that they’ve been systematically deceived and exploited, are invariably destitute and dissociated from all their previous social contacts. For years afterwards, recovering cult victims can suffer from psychological problems (which are also generally indicative of the victims of abuse):

depression; overwhelming feelings (guilt, grief, shame, fear, anger, embarrassment, etc.); dependency/ inability to make decisions; retarded psychological/ intellectual development; suicidal thoughts; panic/ anxiety attacks; extreme identity confusion; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; insomnia/ nightmares; eating disorders; psychosomatic illness, fear of forming intimate relationships; inability to trust; etc.

David Brear (copyright 2018)

_________________________________________________________________________

When Donald Trump announced that he was going to run for the US presidency, I began to receive media-enquiries about his connections with so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing.' In response, I posted a series of articles which clearly set out Mr. Trump's leading role in the pernicious 'MLM' fairy story in general, and the version of it entitled 'ACN,' in particular. To date, no one has challenged the accuracy of my research and analysis.

Over the weekend, this Blog received a non-specific (anonymous) comment which suggested that I could face legal action if I don't remove 'fake news' articles saying that the current US president 'was part of a racket.'

Unfortunately, the author of this comment evidently hasn't read, or understood, my analysis; so here it is again.

President Donald J. Trump still plays a leading role in the 'MLM' controlling-scenario and his disgraceful behaviour (in promoting, and protecting, a criminogenic phenomenon that continues to deceive and damage countless millions of ill-informed victims around the world) fits into an overall pattern of ongoing major racketeering activity (as defined by the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, 1970).

Although his statements were very carefully made in the present tense, Donald Trump has denied reality by insisting that to the best of his knowledge, he has nothing to do with Russia and that no person whom he deals with, has anything to do with Russia.

The evidence clearly shows that the 'ACN' racket, complete with Donald Trump's glowing endorsement, has operated in Russia.

“I do not know the (ACN) company. I know nothing about the (ACN) company other than the people who run the (ACN) company... I’m not familiar with what they do or how they go about doing that.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432709/donald-trump-american-communications-network-multi-level-marketing-boondoggle

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump gave an interview to the Wall St. Journal in which he denied reality, this time by pretending that he had never understood or endorsed ACN and that he'd only been paid to give a few general speeches at ACN events. 

http://www.acnpyramidscheme.com/http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/22/donald-trump-earned-huge-speaking-fees-from-company-alleged-to-be-a-pyramid-scheme-video/


In 2006, Donald Trump began accepting large quantities of stolen cash to front the blame-the victim 'MLM Income Opportunity' cultic racket known as 'ACN' (instigated 1993 as the 'American Communications Network'). As a celebrity opinion-maker, Mr. Trump ( a member of the 'Screen Actors Guild') was specifically chosen by the bosses of the 'ACN' racket not only to facilitate the perpetration of their 'Long Con,' but also to obstruct justice by preventing victims of the 'Long Con' from facing reality and complaining. Once you now how the 'MLM' trick has been pulled, 'ACN' is revealed as an essentially-ludicrous criminogenic organisation with bosses who have steadfastly pretended that they sell exclusive technologically-advanced products and services to customers and end users (based on value and demand) via a network of non-salaried commission agents. In reality, because 'ACN's' products and services have been effectively-unsaleable on the open-market (to persons with fully-functioning critical and evaluative faculties) the overwhelming majority of this fake 'direct selling' company's revenue has derived from a never-ending chain of victims' losing investment payments (based on the false-expectation of future reward) laundered as 'sales.' 

Around 7 years ago, the 'ACN' racket was partially exposed by French network television, but (not least because of Trump's participation) this version of the pernicious 'MLM income opportunity' fairy story, carries on regardless all around the globe. 

Donald Trump peddled the 'ACN' racket on his kitsch television shows, 'The Apprentice' and 'Celebrity Apprentice.'

To date, the UK Mainstream media has taken little interest in the 'ACN' racket, despite the fact that a significant number of British Muslims have already fallen victim. Yet it seems to be common-knowledge amongst the Muslim community that 'ACN' is something far more sinister than just a financial swindle.

Via the peddling of effectively-valueless materials bearing his name, Donald Trump has also been lining his pockets at the expense of countless victims (internationally) of many other kitsch variations of the pernicious 'MLM' fairy story. As far as I'm aware, neither Donald Trump nor anyone in his entourage, has made any statement to explain the President's conflict of interest regarding this particularly dodgy channel of income. Furthermore, to date, no journalist has bothered to ask Donald Trump about his ongoing revenues from book-sales to vulnerable 'MLM' adherents.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html

In the past, when Donald Trump's titanic casino business was sinking in the Atlantic (City), he managed to abandon ship (his pockets stuffed with other people's cash) leaving everyone else to drown. Although Carl Icahn's name features prominently in media reports as one of Trump's major casino business investors, I suspect that his actual role in this earlier chapter of the ongoing Trump tragicomedy, will never be fully-explained.


 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/icahn-conflicts-of-interest-trump-white-house.html

For a while following the 2016 election, it was rumoured that Carl Icahn would be appointed to President Trump's Cabinet, but in the end, it was announced that the 80+ year old tycoon was 'the President's unofficial advisor on regulatory reform.' Yet, in this democratically-unaccountable made-up role, Icahn's conflict of interests almost beggared belief, because at that time, his investment in the effectively-valueless 'MLM' cultic racket known as 'Herbalife,' topped more than US$ one billion. 

Since Donald Trump can now appoint new senior federal regulators whom he knows will turn a blind eye to 'MLM' rackets, you would have to be pretty stupid, and/or deluded, not to foresee that the President will heed the 'advice' of his greedy buddy, Carl Icahn, and continue to betray his fellow citizens (and those of America's allies) by doing everything in his power to protect the pernicious, 'MLM' fairy story. 

Apart from all the stolen cash that 'MLM' racketeers have invested buying influence in Washington, how did 'MLM' cults help Donald Trump to become US President?

First of all, it should be clearly understood that 'MLM' cults  can also be described as, 'Prosperity Gospel' cults, and that the bosses of these organisations have been employing co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion in order to shut down their victims' critical and evaluative faculties and prevent them from facing reality and complaining. In this way, for decades, 'MLM' cult bosses have been hiding the evidence of their crimes in order to continue to perpetrate them

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/15/the-true-mission-of-donald-trump-s-pastor.html

Donald Trump's connections with the so-called 'Prosperity Gospel' go all the way back to his youth. 

Donald Trump (left) with brothers and sisters.

Little Donald, and his siblings, were taken along by their father to Pastor Norman Vincent Peale's 'Reformed Dutch Protestant Marble Collegiate Church' in Manhattan. Donald Trump has never hidden his life-long adherence to Pastor Peale's philosophy.

There has been a lot written about Pastor Peale (1898-1993), but essentially all he did was syphon an existing deep well of credulity to make himself rich. It has to be said that Peale was a highly convincing, word-perfect, performer. He re-wrote, updated and peddled (as his own philosophy) long-established religious concepts (blind faith, power of prayer, paradise, etc.) in a non-religious format ('positive thinking, visualisation, success,' etc.). Cleverly, Peale used the exemplary wealth and success of a few of his followers (like Donald Trump's father) as the proof that his philosophy worked, but he also employed co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion in order to convert other followers to the guilt-inducing belief that a person can only achieve wealth and success by excluding all doubt and totally believing that he/she will achieve wealth and success. In other words, when any of Peale's unquestioning adherents failed to achieve wealth and success, it was child's play to convince them that their failure must have been entirely their own fault for not believing totally.

This, in a nutshell, is the destructive, closed-logic, controlling scenario which has been lying at the heart of all 'MLM' rackets since they first appeared in the late 1940s. Countless millions of victims of dissimulated closed-market swindles (a.k.a. pyramid schemes) have been silenced simply by convincing them that they made a free choice to participate and that they could have made money, if only they had duplicated their leaders' perfect example and not quit. It's little wonder that Peale's  books and recordings have been, and still are, widely-peddled by 'MLM' racketeers to their victims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill

Pastor Peale was only one of several copy-cat 'Positive Thinking/ Prosperity Gospel' quacks who all found hordes of desperate takers for their re-branded cocktail of psychological + religious + economic snake oil, during the Great Depression. Many politicians (including Presidents) were also bedazzled by their optimistic message and they didn't want to recognise its inherent danger. Again, for obvious reasons, the works of persons like Napoleon Hill have also been, and still are, widely-peddled by 'MLM' racketeers to their victims.

There have been countless, unoriginal, parasitic 'Positive Thinking/ Prosperity Gospel' quacks who have attached themselves to 'MLM' rackets down the decades.  All of them have employed co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion. 

Donald Trump cut his political teeth performing live to deluded 'MLM' cult adherents. Trump witnessed first hand how (just like Norman Vincent Peale) 'MLM' shills recite a ritual script - pretending affinity with vulnerable people by acting the roles of ordinary men and woman turned super men and women via their access to a secret step-by-step 'positive' plan which can enable anyone to achieve the American Dream of freedom, wealth and success. In 'MLM,' cultic rackets the shills are always prepared to share their knowledge with anyone (for a price - part of the price being the surrender of the adherents' critical and evaluative faculties).  

At times of mass-alienation (following: wars, natural disasters, economic crises, etc.), history proves that would-be demagogues steadfastly pretending moral and intellectual authority whilst pursuing hidden criminal objectives, who at other times would have been almost universally-recognised as absurd charlatans, have found it much easier to become widely-accepted as authentic Messiahs.



David Brear (copyright 2018)

 

US Attorney, Jason Jones, frank interview about 'Herbalife', 'Scientology,' etc.

'Guru' Asaram Bapu' makes world headlines, whilst 'MLM' ('Amway', 'Herbalife') Gurus still quietly infect India.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionAsaram denies all allegations against him

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43889797

Asaram Bapu: Indian guru sentenced to life for raping girl

A self-styled Indian spiritual guru who claims millions of followers worldwide has been given a life sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl.

Asaram Bapu carried out the 2013 attack at his ashram in the northern city of Jodhpur, the court ruled. He is expected to appeal.

The guru, who is 77, has 400 ashrams around the world where he teaches meditation and yoga.

He is also on trial in another rape case in western Gujarat state.

Jodhpur is on high alert because of concerns there could be violence from the guru's supporters, reports BBC Hindi's Priyanka Dubey who is in the city.

• How a divided India fuelled the rise of the gurus
• Why so many Indians flock to gurusn

"Nothing can compensate for the trauma that the victim and the family have gone through," Utsav Bains, the victim's lawyer, told NDTV ahead of sentencing.

The security measures come after followers of another guru, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, ran amok after he was found guilty of rape last year. The resulting violence killed 23 people.

What was the case against Asaram?

Asaram was arrested in 2013 after a case of sexual assault was filed against him by two of his followers, who alleged that he had assaulted their daughter.

Police say that the couple, who had sent the girl to one of his ashrams for spiritual lessons, were summoned to see her as she was "under the influence of some supernatural ghostly powers".

They were then told to take their daughter to Jodhpur to meet the guru.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionAsaram Bapu teaches medidation and yoga to his followers

The family reached the Jodhpur ashram on 14 August. The following night, Asaram called the victim to his room on the pretext of "curing" her. He then raped the victim while her parents waited outside chanting his prayers, police say.

Police say the guru forced the victim to perform sexual acts on him and threatened to murder her family if she spoke about the incident.

The victim told her parents what had happened the following day. They tried to confront Asaram, but were refused entry to his ashrams.

Who is Asaram Bapu?

Asumal Harpalani was born in April 1941 in a village called Bernai in Sindh region in present-day Pakistan.

His family migrated to Ahmadabad city in Gujarat after the partition of India.

In the 1960s, he started practising spiritualism with different gurus - one of whom gave him the name Asaram. He formed his first ashram in 1972 on the banks of the Sabarmati river in Motera town of Gujarat.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionThere is anger among many people against the guru

His influence spread to different parts of India and around the world in the following decades.

According to his website, he has 40 million followers around the world and has built 400 spiritual retreats across 19 countries.

Important Indian politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have attended his sermons in the past.

He also has properties worth millions of dollars across India. The police are also investigating him for corruption and forgery.

Controversies around his trial

Asaram is also accused of raping another woman in Surat city in Gujarat between 2002 and 2004. The trial in this case is under way.

At least nine witnesses in both cases have been attacked over the past five years - three of them have since died.

Police are investigating these attacks.

The victims' families insist that the guru and his followers are behind these attacks - an allegation he denies.

The Jodhpur rape case, for which he has been convicted, has also seen the victim's family threatened by his followers.

BBC copyright 2018

____________________________________

How a divided India fuelled the rise of the gurus

Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41052605

The followers of a popular Indian guru in northern India have rampaged through towns, vandalising property, setting railway stations on fire, smashing cars, setting media vans alight and clashing with security forces. Several lives have been lost in the violence.

They are angry because a court found Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of raping two women at the headquarters of his religious group, known as Dera Sacha Sauda, in 2002.

To his millions of supporters - mostly underprivileged, lower caste men and women - Singh is a protean leader of his flock. He mutates effortlessly from spiritual leader to flashy entertainer.

He talks about a life lived in "reasonable restraint", but himself lives opulently. The guru of bling - as some call him - is the main actor in garish, self-produced films and the lead singer in noisy open air concerts packed to the gills by a captive audience of devoted follower-fans. His first music album was curiously titled Highway Love Charger and apparently sold millions of copies.

The guru's social outreach is equally intriguing. Singh runs charities, and so-called movements to promote blood, eye and cadaver donations. He campaigns for vegetarianism. But he also makes gay men sign declarations vowing to "give up homosexual behaviour" under his "holy guidance", and was once accused of forcing followers to undergo castration to "get closer to god".

• Why so many Indians flock to gurus
• Why are Indian gurus selling noodles?

A journalist who visited the sprawling headquarters of Singh's dera - a religious group, Punjab has more than 100 of them - told me she was struck by buildings with human ear-shaped windows and high turquoise walls topped with multi-coloured fruit-shaped water tanks.

"It seemed to me," she told me, "that he's a guru who lives out his dreams and fantasies - movie star, rock singer, do-gooder, political influencer - through his group and his devotees. In the process, he also helps his followers to dream big."

India has always had gurus for as longer as one can remember. There are global gurus like the flamboyant Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to whom the Beatles turned to for spiritual salvation in the 1960s. And there are domestic gurus for rich and poor with huge followings.

Image copyrightMANOJ DHAKA

Image captionTens of thousands of the guru's supporters had flocked to Chandigarh

The gurus count politicians, film and cricket stars, bureaucrats and ordinary people among their devotees. They run schools and hospitals. They peddle influence as superstitious politicians run to them for advice and votes of their devotees. Proximity to a guru legitimises a politician and adds to his power. Gurus like Singh virtually run parallel states, providing services to followers.

The 50-year-old Singh, who will be sentenced on Monday, is one of the more controversial ones. In the past, gurus - or "godmen" as they are called in India - have been accused of murder, rape, trafficking, assault, sexual abuse and fraud.

Singh himself has been accused of mocking Sikh and Hindu figures, and investigated for murder and rape. Although the bulk of his devotees are lower caste, poor and underprivileged, his core group include highly-educated professional followers.

Many believe that millions of people flock to the dozens of religious groups like Singh's because they feel that mainstream politics and religion have failed them. In what they feel is an increasingly inequitable world, they feel let down by their politicians and priests, and turn to gurus and shamans for succour.

"In many ways the rise of gurus like Singh tells us something about how conventional politics and religion have been failing a large number of people. So they turn to unconventional religion to seek some dignity and quality. Such groups have arisen in many parts of the democratic, modern world. They find equality by sharing common spaces and ceremonies with millions of fellow followers," sociologist Shiv Visvanathan told me.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionSupporters of the guru clashed with security forces on Friday

Not without reason Singh's followers share a common invented surname, Insan (Human) - as opposed to an individual surname which reveals your caste and place in society.

Clearly, the rise of the gurus and religious groups tells us how deeply divided and hierarchical India remains. Friday's violence once again showed how such gurus can end up running a parallel state, and the seeming powerlessness of the state itself.

BBC copyright 2018

_________________________________________________________________________

The above BBC articles begin to explain that there are various parallel totalitarian states (in microcosm) in existence in the Republic of India. These have been ruled by psychologically dominant individuals, and/or bodies of psychologically dominant individuals (often with impressive, made-up names, and/or ranks, and/or titles), who have held themselves accountable to no one. These individuals have steadfastly pretended moral and intellectual authority whilst pursuing various, hidden, criminal objectives (fraudulent, and/or sexual, and/or violent, etc.). The admiration of their adherents has only served to confirm, and magnify, these leaders’ strong sense of self-entitlement and fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, ideal love, etc.

http://cultcharacteristics.blogspot.fr/

Unfortunately, home-grown 'Gurus' have not been the only kitsch 'Long Con' artists syphoning a existing deep-well of credulity in India. In the wake of the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, American-based 'Multi Level Marketing' cultic rackets (led by 'Amway') began to infect the world's largest democracy. These have been tailored to fit the existing beliefs and instinctual desires of their victims and, consequently, many millions of ill-informed Indian citizens continue to be temporarily bedazzled, and enslaved, by them. The Indian government has so far failed to recognise the underlying criminogenic nature of the 'MLM' phenomenon, but then, so have most other governments around the world. However, various insightful senior Indian Judges, and law enforcement agents, have understood that 'MLM' is a pernicious lie and they have openly challenged it. Yet these extraordinary ongoing matters have never been accurately reported by the mainstream media internationally.

_________________________________________________________________________

'Multi-Level Marketing' Warning

The following deconstructed analysis has been formulated to sharpen the critical and evaluative faculties of all unwary persons approaching 'Multi-Level Marketing' from the dangerous (subjective) point of view that it must be a business, rather than from the safe (purely-objective) point of view that they don't really know what it is.

_________________________________________________________________________

More than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that:

• the widely-misunderstood phenomenon that has become popularly-known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' (a.k.a. 'Network Marketing') is nothing more than an absurd, non-rational,  cultic, economic pseudo-science maliciously-designed to lure unwary persons into de facto servitude, dissociate them from external reality and not only steal their money, but also deceive them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap. 

• the impressive-sounding made-up jargon term, 'MLM,' is therefore, the misleading title for an enticing structured-scenario of control which has been developed, and constantly acted out as  reality, 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 'Long Cons*'  - comprising self-perpetuating rigged-market swindles**, a.k.a. 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.).

• Apart from an insignificant minority of shills (whose leading-role in the 'Long Con' has been to pretend that anyone can achieve financial freedom simply by following their unquestioning example and exactly-duplicating a step-by-step-plan of recruitment and self-consumption), the hidden overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' has always been effectively 100%.

________________________________________________________________________

*A 'Long Con' is a form of fraud maliciously designed to exploit victims' existing beliefs and instinctual desires and make them falsely-believe that they are exercising a completely free-choice. 'Long Cons' comprise an enticing structured-scenario of control acted out as reality over an extended period. Like theatrical plays, 'Long Cons' are written, directed and produced. They involve leading players and supporting players as well as props, sets, extras, costumes, script, etc. The hidden objective of 'Long Cons' is to convince unwary persons that fiction is fact and fact is fiction, progressively cutting them off from external reality. In this way, victims begin unconsciously to play along with the controlling-scenario and (in the false-expectation of future reward) large sums of money or valuables can be stolen from them. Classically, the victims of 'Long Cons' can become deluded to such an extent that they will abandon their education, jobs, careers, etc., empty their bank accounts, and/or beg, steal, borrow from friends, family members, etc.

_________________________________________________________________________

** The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 50 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward). 

Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability.

Meanwhile an insignificant (permanent) minority direct the 'Long Con' - raking in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market and by controlling/withholding all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results from its never-ending chain of (temporary) de facto slaves.

Although cure-all pills potions and vitamin/dietary supplements, household and beauty, products have been most-prevalent, it is possible to use any product, and/or service, to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle. There are even some 'MLM' rackets that have been hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at fixed high prices). Some 'MLM' rackets have included 'cash-back/discount shopping cards, travel products, insurance, energy/communications services' and 'crypto-currencies' in their controlling scenarios.

No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractees who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.

I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.

Part of the key-information that all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these contractees. 

When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for anyone to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.

Although a significant number of 'MLM' front-companies (like 'Vemma', 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing', 'Wake Up Now') have been shut-down by commercial regulators, some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' ,'Herbalife', Forever Living Products' ) have continued to hide in plain sight whilst secretly churning tens of millions of losing participants over decades.

The quantifiable results of the self-perpetuating global 'Long Con' known as 'Multi Level Marketing,' have been fiendishly hidden by convincing victims that they are 'Independent Business Owners' and that any losses they incurred, must have been entirely their own fault. 

Blog readers should observe how (in the above linked-videos) chronic victims of 'MLM' cults are incapable of describing what they were subjected to in accurate terms. Even though they are no longer physically playing along with the 'Long Con's' controlling-scenario, they unconsciously continue to think, and speak, using the jargon-laced 'MLM' script - illogically describing themselves as 'Distributors.' 

Chronic victims of blame-the-victim cultic rackets who have managed to escape and confront the ego-destroying reality that they’ve been systematically deceived and exploited, are invariably destitute and dissociated from all their previous social contacts. For years afterwards, recovering cult victims can suffer from psychological problems (which are also generally indicative of the victims of abuse):

depression; overwhelming feelings (guilt, grief, shame, fear, anger, embarrassment, etc.); dependency/ inability to make decisions; retarded psychological/ intellectual development; suicidal thoughts; panic/ anxiety attacks; extreme identity confusion; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; insomnia/ nightmares; eating disorders; psychosomatic illness, fear of forming intimate relationships; inability to trust; etc.

David Brear (copyright 2018)

________________________________________________________________________

Second generation 'MLM' racketeers, Doug De Vos and  Steve Van Andel.

Members of the DeVos and Van Andel crime families. Billionaire 'Amway' Instigator, Richard De Vos (seated centre).

In 2013, 'Amway India Enterprises' Chief Executive Officer, William S. Pinckney, was arrested for fraud; whilst senior Indian police officers openly described 'Amway' as an enormous 'racket.' (Pinckney is of joint American and Indian nationality, but also holding an Australian passport).

http://innlivenews.in/2013/11/16/cid-cautions-public-against-amway/

Previously, the Indian police had issued clear warnings to the public not to get involved with 'Amway,' and they treated the matter of 'Amway' as criminal fraud disguised as 'legitimate business,' and therefore, nothing to do with civil regulators.

Predictably, in the wake of Pinckney's arrest, US-based 'MLM ' racketeers did everything they could to trivialise all these events and to have their own criminal activities effectively placed above the law in India. The 'Amway' Ministry of Truth swung into (reality-inverting) action, claiming that 'Amway' was a victim and that the Indian authorities simply don't understand how 'Amway' and 'MLM Direct Selling' functions.



  Steve De Vos and Doug Van Andel issued a typically arrogant statement (June 3rd. 2014):

'The continued detention and harassment of Amway India CEO Bill Pinckney must end. Amway is a reputable company with 55 years of operating legally and ethically in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. We have fully cooperated with all investigations and requests from authorities in India and will continue to do so. To continue with this investigative retention when we have worked to be entirely transparent about our business is unnecessary and unreasonable.

We understand the new Union government in New Delhi played no role in this police action and hope they will help in the immediate release of Bill so he can quickly and safely be returned to his family. We also ask for them to assist in moving quickly to resolve this situation and restore confidence in India’s investment potential.

Despite the challenging market conditions, we remain committed to doing business in India as well as to the 500 Amway India employees and more than 550,000 distributors across the country. We will continue to expand our investments in India including the new USD $100 million manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. And we will continue to provide an opportunity for Indian citizens to buy and sell our more than 140 high quality consumer products. It’s what we have been doing in India since 1998 and it’s what we intend to do for generations to come.

Ultimately, our goal is to find quick solutions that prevent events like this from ever occurring again. We want to operate under clear guidelines that enable us to continue to contribute to the growing prosperity of Indian citizens and the country as a whole.'

________________________________________________________________________


Reality-inverting 'MLM' propaganda also appeared in the mainstream media

http://online.wsj.com/articles/second-case-brought-against-amways-india-chief-1401388981

Sean MClain of The Wall St. Journal reported:

NEW DELHI—The head of Amway Corp.'s Indian business was arrested for a second time this week as police investigate allegations that the American direct-selling company is violating a law against pyramid schemes.

Amway India Chief Executive William Scott Pinckney was already in jail in the Indian city of Kadapa when police from another municipality showed up Wednesday and transferred him to another jurisdiction for further questioning by police, in what Amway called "an interesting and curious sequence of events."

No charges have been filed in either case, and Mr. Pinckney has been remanded to custody for police questioning.

Mr. Pinckney had been arrested Monday at Amway's Indian headquarters outside New Delhi and taken to a police station more than 1,000 miles away in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

In both cases, police are investigating complaints alleging that Mr. Pinckney and Amway had broken an Indian law against informal lotteries and so-called money-circulation schemes, a kind of pyramid scheme.

Amway said neither Mr. Pinckney nor the company had done anything wrong, and that authorities didn't understand the nature of Amway's operations. Amway distributors earn money from products sold to consumers themselves and by other people they bring into the business.

The allegations are "frivolous and give a misleading impression about our business," Amway said in a statement. The company also noted the content of the complaints was "identical" and they were "filed by advocates or activists."

Police said both cases are related to alleged violations of the law banning pyramid schemes. The case for which Mr. Pinckney was first arrested was filed after P. Rama Jaganatha Reddy, a local lawyer, said he was approached to become an Amway distributor. The complainant in the latest case said he was told by other Amway distributors that he would lose his distributorship if he failed to recruit new distributors. Mr. Reddy couldn't be located for comment.

Mr. Pinckney, who was in custody, couldn't be reached for comment. His attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Indian courts increasingly are willing to consider criminal liability for executives related to the actions of their companies, said Mritunjay Kapur, head of risk consulting at KPMG in India.

The biggest risk corporations face, he said, "is compliance with the various regulations that are sometimes complicated and have gray areas."

A dispute over payments between a Samsung Electronics Co. unit and one of its suppliers led an Indian court in April to summon Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee to come to India to face criminal charges. Samsung has denied wrongdoing and said Mr. Lee has no connection to the case.

These sorts of business-related complaints aren't new, but what has changed recently is that Indian courts are now responding with arrest warrants.

"It's a mind-set change," said Harish Salve, an attorney who has represented Amway India in the past. "This began four-five years ago," Mr. Salve said, adding that before that, "there was a feeling that the rich and mighty were above the law."

In India, even some civil-code violations can lead to jail sentences, said Rajat Mukherjee, a partner at Indian law firm Khaitan & Co. He said statutes now prescribe jail terms for offenses such as not complying with labor regulations or failing to contribute to employees' social-security plans.

On Wednesday, a magistrate in Kurnool—where the original complaint was filed—denied bail to Mr. Pinckney after local police sought to keep him in custody at the Kadapa jail for questioning, police said. Later that day, officers from the city of Khammam arrested him at the Kadapa jail, said Ramana Moorthy, a police inspector from Khammam.

"We drove with him overnight for 10-12 hours and produced him before a magistrate at 8 a.m." on Thursday in Khammam, Mr. Moorthy said. A magistrate in Khammam has ordered Mr. Pinckney held in Warangal central jail, 340 miles from Kurnool. Mr. Pinckney is under judicial custody until June 10.

A local resident Gollaubudi Rama Rao had filed a complaint on May 19 with the Khammam police, Mr. Moorthy said. "He told us that he took membership with Amway in 2012 and they asked him to recruit other members. He was told that if he didn't recruit others then his membership would be canceled," Mr. Moorthy said.

Mr. Rama Rao couldn't be located for comment.

The Khammam police filed an arrest warrant with a magistrate in Khammam after seeing on television that Mr. Pinckney had been arrested in Kurnool, Mr. Moorthy said.

Amway and other direct-selling companies want a law in India defining direct selling to make it clear that they aren't the same as a pyramid scheme. "There is no clarity in the regulations; they think we're doing money circulation," Amway spokesman Yoginder Singh said.

A money-circulation scheme is an Indian term for a type of pyramid scheme in which money is paid to the enroller for adding members to the scheme.

_________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, 'The Wall St. Journal' completely failed to report these key- facts:

(Readers should note that the WSJ has previously participated in covering up the 'Amway' racket http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.fr/2012/03/chairman-and-ceo-of-amway-have.html ).

'Amway's' so-called 'MLM income opportunity' has already been closely examined, and judged unlawful, by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in 2007. At that time, the court even began to examine how the pernicious 'Amway/MLM' fairy story had got into India in the first place.

In June 1994, representatives of the US-based ‘Amway’ crime families approached the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Dept. of Industrial Development) bearing gifts.

By steadfastly pretending affinity with officials (who, naturally, wanted to believe that all external investment creates employment), the ‘Amway’ crime families initially sought an agreement (renewable biannually) which simply paved the way for the creation a privately-controlled, unlimited-liability, commercial company, ‘Amway India Enterprises.’ As a subsidiary (entirely owned by its American parent company), the representatives of the ‘Amway’ racketeers meekly accepted that ‘Amway India Enterprises’ would be forbidden to manufacture or import. The proposed company would be permitted only to use its ‘Multi-Level Marketing Business Model’ to sell products sourced from local, independent, Indian manufacturers. 

Furthermore, ‘Amway India Enterprises’ was obliged to file a separate agreement with the Reserve Bank of India, allowing the proposed subsidiary to transfer capital to, and from, its parent and, thus, act as a de facto, foreign exchange dealer.

Consequently, without any informed scrutiny, officials at the Indian Ministry of Industry, Secretariat for Industrial Approval (Foreign Collaborations II Section) rubber-stamped the application for the proposed 'Amway' company (within less than two months) on August 26th 1994.

Twelve months later, 'Amway India Enterprises' was legally-registered after final approval by the Indian 'Foreign Investment Promotion Board.'

In this way, America’s contemporary version of the Trojan Horse was dragged unnoticed into India with the assistance of the country’s own naïve regulators. However, it lay dormant until May 5th 1998 when a network of regional offices began to be established.

Six years later, the destructive contents finally began to spill out. On August 8th 2004, the (apparently safe) original (biannual) agreement was mysteriously altered (at the request of the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’) allowing the unregulated manufacture, and/or importation, of ‘Amway’s’ own range of effectively-unsaleable household, beauty and health products.

At no stage did Indian officials bother to apply common-sense and ask how the so-called ‘MLM Business Opportunity’ could possibly be economically-viable, and lawful, when ‘Amway’ products were now, self-evidently, several times the price of equivalent (and often superior) merchandise widely-available in traditional Indian retail outlets? Yet, implicit to the modified agreement was the understanding that ‘Amway India Enterprises’ would respect Indian law and recruit non-salaried agents who could earn commission payments from retailing products to the public. In plain language, Indian officials were deceived by the de facto agents of US-based racketeers.

That said, it is not known what other inducements (if any) these conveniently-blind civil servants received.

The guts of above information comes from a landmark judgement given on July 19th 2007 against ‘Amway India Enterprises’ by Chief Justice G.S. Singhvi, and Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, of the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

In 2006, the Criminal Investigations Dept. of the Hyderabad police raided, and sealed, the local offices of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ arresting various employees, following a particularly detailed complaint filed by A.V.S. Satyanarayana under the ‘Prize Chits and Money Circulation (banning) Act, 1978.’ This courageous individual confessed that he had been deceived into wasting a significant amount of time and money after having being subjected to overwhelming psychological pressure to join ‘Amway’ by two dominant men in his own social circle. Within three days of the registration of this complaint, aggressive lawyers acting for ‘Amway India Enterprises’ issued two writs against the Hyderabad CID. 

Typically, ‘Amway’ posed as an innocent victim under attack. Ignoring all quantifiable evidence to the contrary, the lawyers steadfastly pretended that their employer’s ‘MLM Business Opportunity’ is fully-approved by US and other regulators in dozens of different countries, making it entirely legal in India because ‘Amway India Enterprises’ had also been examined by, and was acting with the full-approval of, the Indian government officials. Therefore, the Andhra Pradesh police had neither reason nor authority to launch such a heavy-handed investigation and, thus, damage, a legitimate business. At the same time, both the lawyers and corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ tried to convince the world that Satyanarayana was a pathetic liar who had filed a malicious complaint as the result of a marital/financial dispute which had, itself, resulted in his pursuing a vendetta against members of his family who were ‘Amway Distributors.’ 

Ironically, it was ‘Amway India Enterprise’s’ own malicious writs which brought the company under the rigorous scrutiny of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Simply by applying common-sense, Chief Justice Singhvi and Justice Reddy were immediately able to see that the ‘Amway MLM’ fairy story is far too good to be true. Then, by ignoring the scripted-lies of ‘Amway’s’ attorneys, and by concentrating on the compelling testimony of the victim (backed up by documentary evidence), they deduced that the so-called ‘MLM Income Opportunity’ is in breach of Indian legislation. Despite the mystifying, linguistic and mathematical complexity of ‘Amway’s’ corporate camouflage, de facto agents of the company actually propagate the self-gratifying delusion that limitless prosperity can eventually be obtained without any further effort simply by regularly purchasing products and recruiting others to do the same, etc., ad infinitum. As a consequence, the two writs were dismissed, and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh ordered that the Hyderabad Criminal Investigation Dept. should be allowed to continue to follow whatever procedures are permitted by law to hold the corporate officers of ‘Amway India Enterprises’ to account.

Today, more than a decade later, despite the boss of 'Amway India Enterprises,' and two other corporate officers, being arrested for, and charged with, fraud in the Indian State of Kerala in 2013, the 'MLM Income Opportunity' virus still continues to infect India, whilst Indian (state and national) legislators continue to be approached and groomed by the representatives of US-based racketeers who, obviously, do not wish to have their real activities rigorously investigated by independent Indian law enforcement agents. 

As far as I'm aware, not long after his second arrest, William S. Pinckney was released on bail and he has never been brought to trial.

David Brear (copyright 2018)