('Amway', 'ACN', 'Herbalife', 'Forever Living Products', 'NuSkin', etc.) What does the story of Jean-Claude Romand tell us about 'MLM' cultic rackets?

Jean-Claude Romand is a real person, but the perfect character he played for 18 years, 'Dr. Romand,' never really existed, even though a significant number of people were absolutely convinced that he was real.

Frenchman, Jean-Claude Romand (b. 1954), was in the news last Week, because he has been released from prison (albeit subject to conditions) after serving 26 years for committing murder.

At first glance, there would seem to be no connection between cultic 'income opportunity' rackets and this Gallic saga of family deceit and violence, but when you dig deeper, you discover that, for an extended-period (prior to his briefly turning violent), Romand got away with posing first as a qualified physician, university lecturer and loving family-man, then as a respected and hard-working senior medical researcher for the World Health Organisation Clinic in Geneva and eventually as a confidential financial adviser (to friends and relatives), due to his exclusive access to high-yield hedge fund/investment schemes. 

According to various psychiatric reports, prior to 1988, Romand was, for all the world, a gentle and kindly man, but who had originally become a habitual liar as a child due to his mother suffering from anxiety. In simple terms, in order to protect his fragile mother, little Jean-Claude found that by telling her what she preferred to hear, he could keep her calm and happy. Thus, in reality, Romand's own mother-orientated version of his perfect life and outstanding achievements, gradually became an out-of-control, complex, severe and inflexible narcissistic construction of lies and half-truths, initially financed by his proud parents (who had bought him an apartment when he genuinely obtained a place at the medical school in Lyon in the early 1970s). 

In reality, Romand was not particularly gifted academically. He dropped out of his medical studies after failing to turn up for an exam at the end of his first year. Then, at the start of the following term (and for the next 12 years) he enrolled at Lyon Medical School as a first year student, but he was now only pretending to be studying. In the end, a new senior faculty member became suspicious and Romand was obliged to move on and adapt his lies accordingly. Meanwhile, Romand had persuaded his friends and family that, throughout this period, he had been successfully passing his annual medical exams in the normal way and had qualified as a doctor in 1979. For a while, he pretended to have been invited to lecture at Dijon University, but then he claimed to have become the head of the WHO's Geneva research clinic.

Jean-Claude Romand and his wife, Florence.

In 1980, Romand got married and, by 1990, he had fathered a daughter (Caroline b. 1985) and a son (Antoine b. 1987). Throughout this period, he actually spent his 'working' days driving around near to the French border with Switzerland and occasionally visiting the WHO's public information service in Geneva - where he collected up-to-date official literature, and accessories, which he used as convincing props to support his act. Sometimes, he pretended to go on international trips, but he was actually staying in airport hotels and buying presents for his family from duty free shops.

Romand regularly talked about socialising with his WHO colleagues, but he convinced his wife, family and friends that certain aspects of his research were secret, and that he wanted to keep his professional and private lives as separate as possible. In this way, 'Dr.' Romand steadfastly pretended absolute moral intellectual authority whilst financing his fictional controlling-scenario by instigating a classic dissimulated (albeit small-scale) rigged-market swindle, a.k.a. Ponzi scheme. The money he stole and controlled, came from the savings accounts of his friends and family who had been led to believe that it could be invested for them advantageously outside of France (and presumably free of French tax) by himself (as a privileged UN employee).

During this period, Roman acquired a mistress who also fell for his lies and who gave him the equivalent of around $150 000 'to invest.'

In 1988, Romand's father-in-law asked to withdraw some of his own 'growing investment.' Within a few weeks, he had fallen to his death in the presence of just one witness, Jean-Claude Romand.

Romand's widowed mother-in-law now decided to sell her house and move to a smaller and cheaper apartment. Naturally, her resulting significant cash-windfall was handed to her daughter's devoted husband for him to 'invest.'

In early 1993, again faced with imminent exposure (when some of his worried 'investors' had discovered that no such 'Dr.' featured on the list of WHO staff), rather than face reality and allow himself to be held to account, Romand apparently contemplated suicide, but instead, he again turned violent.





Romand borrowed a .22 rifle from his father and bought a silencer along with some cans of self-defence gas. He then returned to his home where he proceeded to beat Florence (aged 37) to death with a heavy rolling pin. Romand calmly slept overnight with his wife's bloodied dead body on their bed. The next morning he woke Caroline (aged 7) and Antoine (aged 5) and prepared their breakfast as though nothing had happened. After amusing them with video cartoons all day, Romand put his children to bed before shooting them both in the head (at point blank range) as they slept. 





The following evening, Romand drove to his parents home for dinner. After the meal, he calmly executed both of them with his father's rifle and even shot their dog. Later that evening, Romand arrived at his mistress' home. He had earlier arranged to pick her up, but on the way to a mysterious romantic date, he pretended that his car had broken down and that he needed her to ring for help. When she descended from the vehicle, he sprayed gas in her face and tried to strangle her. During their ensuing struggle, Romand evidently changed his mind. He gave up trying to murder her and instead wiped her tears and helped her back to his car. On the way to her home, he began begging for forgiveness and making her promise him not to tell anyone about what he'd had just done.




After apparently placating his mistress, Romand went home and sat for a while calmly watching television with his wife and children lying dead in their rooms above him. He then set fire to his home with petrol (gasoline) before swallowing an apparent overdose of sleeping tablets and laying down next to his wife's corpse. However, the tablets were later discovered to be so old that they had probably lost  most of their potency and could not have killed him 

Romand was rescued (unconscious) by firemen in the early hours of the following morning. He was rushed to hospital where, at first, he remained silent. The police assumed that he was traumatised, but soon afterwards his parents' dead bodies were discovered by his brother and his mistress interviewed. The police began to realise that Romand had meticulously planned and executed what were obviously crimes, but even though they arrested him for murder, they still couldn't figure out why a young doctor who had appeared to be such a happy, successful and respected member of the community, could have done this.

At his trial in June 1996, Romand confessed to everything. He was duly found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for at least 22 years.

Later, the French authorities announced that Jean-Claude Romand had suffered from a severe form of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but was not considered to be insane. It has recently been announced that prison service psychiatrists no longer consider him to represent a public danger, but the parents of Romand's late wife are outraged by the decision to release him.

Romand's life story has been told in a book, 'The Adversary,' by Emmanuel Carrère with whom he began corresponding after his arrest. This account was later turned into a movie in 2001.


David Brear (copyright 2019)

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'Multi-Level Marketing' warning:

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

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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%.

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*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.

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** 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 décades.

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 2019)