Of lies and deception

Besides the company Juice Plus+ mentioned in the previous part, the Los Angeles-based MLM company Herbalife Nutrition, which is active in Europe, has also already had to dig into its pockets for unfair sales practices, this in a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) some six years ago. The company was ordered to compensate nearly 350,000 victims of the illegal pyramid scheme by paying around 200 million US dollars, an integral restructuring of its sales methods, and monitoring by an independent compliance auditor. Six years later, Herbalife is touting itself as one of "America's Best Employers For Diversity 2022" selected by Forbes magazine – 311th to be exact.

While the company seems to have changed its strategy, at least outwardly, numerous MLM monitoring platforms remain sceptical, as images of organised luxury trips for representatives and promises of a successful life as a self-employed person still spread across the internet. The idea of passive income is attractive, especially to young up-and-comers who feel that their free development is restricted in the regular social system. Besides Herbalife, the IM Academy also takes advantage of this: "How would you feel if you had more control over your life?" is the slogan that greets you when you visit the official website. Smiling faces, strong-sounding alliterations like "educate", "empower" and "enrich" promise "satisfaction from within" – of course through monetary gain from outside.

For members only

However, if one clicks on the join button, the question appears whether one has been referred by another person. Without consent in the form of the username of the representative concerned: no access. The login is only open to already active clients and so-called IBOs, i.e. "Independent Business Owners", the representatives of the system. A system that builds its façade in Forex trading, but on closer inspection reveals that a digital form of nepotism is being practised here: "team building", as it is called in network marketing jargon, or in other words: the continuous recruitment of new representatives who continue to lay the foundations of the pyramid.

The start-up package for newcomers to the business is called "Elite", and in the package called ECX there is talk of exclusive travel and lifestyle discounts – always accompanied by the toothpaste smile of company founder and CEO Chris "The Panda" Terry and his collaborating wife Isis de la Torre Terry. The self-proclaimed philanthropist actually comes from the construction industry, but has been dogmatising his global followers via boot camps, conferences and zoom calls about the sheer endless possibilities of multilevel marketing for almost a decade. The fact that the "mentor", whose henchmen promise risk-free trading in a market brimming with risk, has already had dealings with pyramidal companies such as ZeekRewards in the past only becomes apparent with more intensive Google research. The founder of the latter, Paul R. Burks, was sentenced to almost 15 years in prison for fraud in North Carolina in 2017; his partners got off without any further public attention.