Complaint Review: Herbalife International

Chritiane -

Some of the things I've found on Herbalife...

Ephedra Products under Attack in U.S. and CanadaQuackwatch Home Page
Herbalife, Other Ephedra Marketers
Face Soaring Insurance Rates
David Evans
2002 Bloomberg, LP
April 11, 2002

Herbalife International Inc. continues to sell weight-loss products containing ephedra, following lawsuits blaming the substance for customer deaths, and a six-fold increase in product-liability insurance expense.

Herbalife, which faces two wrongful death suits blaming its ephedra weight-loss products, still
includes the herb in its line of diet products, which made up 42.7% of last
year's $1.66 billion in sales, according to its annual report.

Late yesterday, the company agreed to be taken private for $685 million, or $19.50 a share, by Whitney & Co. LLC and Golden Gate Capital Inc.
Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, said
ephedra insurance premiums have increased along with adverse incident reports and lawsuits.

"You have a situation where the house is on fire," said Hartwig. "If your house was already on fire, it's very unlikely we'd write a policy."

More than a half dozen other publicly traded companies also continue to sell ephedra products, while unable to obtain desired levels of insurance.

Herbalife said in its federal filing that its product- liability insurance premium soared from $400,000 in 2000 to $2.5 million last year, even as its deductible increased 10-fold to $5 million, and its coverage limit fell by $10
million to $40 million.

Ephedra is an herbal stimulant also used for bodybuilding. The National Football League banned ephedra last year after it was linked to the deaths of several athletes. Health Canada ordered a voluntary recall of the products in January, after finding "these products pose a serious risk to health."

Dozens of Deaths Ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra, also called ma huang, is a chemical cousin of amphetamines and increases both blood pressure and heart rate, say
experts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked ephedra to hundreds of adverse reactions and dozens of deaths.

Herbalife, based in Los Angeles, said in its annual report it might discontinue selling ephedra products because insurance is "becoming prohibitively expensive."

It said the company had "substantial defenses" to the lawsuits and said "they will not have a material impact on us." An Herbalife spokeswoman, Tammy Taylor of Sitrick & Co., said Herbalife believes ephedra products are
"safe and effective when used as directed."

Francis Tirelli, company president, didn't return telephone calls.

Nine other public companies say they sell ephedra products. Advantage Marketing
Systems Inc. received 52% of its $28.4 million of 2001 revenue from ephedra.

The company's product liability insurance excludes ephedra claims, according to its
annual report. The company didn't indicate any ephedra lawsuits in its annual report.

Reggie Cook, chief financial officer, said the coverage would be too costly. "If I paid $100,000, I could get $100,000 of coverage," he said.

No Complaints Natrol Inc. of Chatsworth, California, has sold ephedra supplements for 18
years, without a single complaint, said Elliot Balbert, president and founder.

Still, the company can't find product-liability insurance for the products, which include Natrol High, Metabolfirm and Therma Pro.

"We couldn't even get a d**n bid," said Balbert. "I don't like the exposure." He
said Natrol might stop selling ephedra products, which generate less than 3% of revenue.

Three other public companies said they are selling ephedra products although their insurance now provides less protection.
Wrongful Death Suit Twinlab Corp. of Hauppauge,

New York, faces a lawsuit over a customer death
following use of its Metabolift ephedra product. Chattem Inc. of Chattanooga,
Tennessee, cautioned in its annual report it might not have sufficient insurance
coverage to cover sales of Dexatrim after its policy expires on May 31.

Weider Nutrition International Inc., which distributes diet products from its Salt Lake City headquarters, is defending three ephedra lawsuits. Daniel Thomson, Weider's general counsel, didn't return telephone calls. William
Rizzardi, Twinlab's chief information officer, and Scott Sloat, Chattem's controller, declined to comment.
Four other companies that sell ephedra products don't indicate any lawsuits in their annual reports. Nutraceutical International Corp. said its liability insurance excludes ephedra, and the Park City, Utah-based company said it
recently halted sales of some ephedra products. Les Brown, chief financial officer, didn't return telephone calls.

Mannatech Inc. of Coppell, Texas, reported selling ephedra products. Steve Fenstermacher, chief financial officer, didn't return phone calls.

Both Nature's Sunshine Products Inc. of Provo, Utah, and NBTY Inc. of Bohemia, New York, sell ephedra supplements. Harvey Kamil, NBTY's chief executive, didn't return telephone calls. Nature's Sunshine Products executives weren't available.

'Natural Reaction'
Among a group of 140 FDA adverse reaction reports, 104 show ephedrine was the
"very likely" cause of a medical problem, according to Ray Woosley, who examined
the reports. Woosley, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, said there were 10 reported ephedrine cases of "sudden death" and 15 severe strokes.

Woosley, who joined Public Citizen in its petition for an FDA ephedra ban, said
he's not surprised that insurers are shying away from companies selling ephedra.

"That's a natural reaction to reckless behavior," he said. News Index ||| Quackwatch Home Page This article was posted on April 11, 2002.

And this... Herbalife Agrrews to Pay $850,000 PenaltyMLM Watch Home Page Herbalife Agrees to Pay $850,000 Penalty (1986) Stephen Barrett, M.D.
In 1986, Herbalife International, Inc., and its president Mark Hughes, agreed to pay $850,000 to settle charges by the California Attorney General that the company made false medical claims and engaged in an illegal pyramid-style
marketing scheme. Herbalife has been selling its products through a multilevel marketing program in which the amount of money received by its distributors depended upon the amounts purchased by them and by those whom they recruit as
distributors. The Attorney General's suit, filed in 1985, cited the following questionable claims made for Herbalife products:

Slim and Trim Formulas comprise an effective weight loss program which can produce a typical weight loss of 10-29 excess pounds a month.

Cell-U-Loss can attack "cellulite," eliminate inches, suppress appetite, improve circulation, and help many other conditions.

Herbal-Aloe can aid digestion, "heal" and "cleanse the system."

N.R.G. can increase energy, increase mental alertness, and provide a "nutritional lift." (The fact that caffeine is one of its active ingredients was not disclosed.)

Lifeline aids the cardiovascular system.

Schizandra Plus can combat damage that leads to premature aging.

Tang Kuei is effective against hot flashes and can help the regularity of the menstrual system and relieve menstrual disorders.

Flora-Fiber "scrubs and cleanses" the intestine with fiber and prevents disease.

K-8 stops "induced depression" and "elevates your mood so you can handle stress."

The suit also charged: Early editions of the Herbalife Official Career Handbook made illegal claims that various herbal ingredients were effective against more than 70 diseases and conditions. Although most of these claims were deleted in subsequent editions of the handbook, the company had not replaced the original pages sent to distributors with the revised pages or asked these distributors to destroy them.

Similar testimonial claims were made in company broadcasts over cable television.

To attract new distributors, the TV programs and company magazine contained stories of individuals who made large amounts of money by building large networks of Herbalife distributors. These representations armisleading
because there is no reasonable basis to assert that most people who become distributors will earn large sums.

Although the company offered a "full warranty" on all of its products, customers who tried to invoke the warranty were often thwarted in their
efforts by the defendants.

The court order settling the case, dated October 14, 1986, forbids representations without reasonable basis that:

Herbalife products contain herbs that can curb appetite, burn off calories, or cleanse the system.

Product users can lose weight without reducing caloric intake.

Cell-U-Loss can eliminate "cellulite." Other products or their ingredients are effective as specified in the Attorney General's complaint.
The court ordered strict limits on testimonials and said that the caffeine content of N.R.G. should be disclosed in the career book and on the product's label. It also ordered Herbalife to change its marketing program so that
distributors can profit only from retail sales and are discouraged from maintaining (and possibly becoming stuck with) large product inventories in order to qualify for bonuses.

The $850,000 penalty-payable over a five-year period-was assessed to reimburse the state for costs, attorneys' fees, expenses of investigation, and other expenses. Mark Hughes was ordered to post a $400,000 security deposit to cover possible default by the company.

On December 3, 1986, The Wall Street Journal reported that Herbalife had merged with a Utah-based shell corporation and plans to raise $14 million with a public stock offering. The company netted $7.6 million on sales of $115.7 million during the first half of 1986 and $12.4 million on $462.9 million of sales in
1985.

Index to Information about Herbalife
MLM Watch Home Page And still more dirt...
Herbalife International: 1985 Hearings, Part IMLM Watch Home Page Herbalife Criticized at Senate Hearings Odom Fanning
Opening two days of hearings, Senator William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, made it clear that their purpose was not to "get" Herbalife or any other product, but resulted from five months of investigation into weight reduction products and plans of all types.

The Subcommittee is authorized to investigate the efficiency and economy of all branches of the government and also has jurisdiction over "all aspects of crime and lawlessness within the U.S. which have impact upon or affect the national health, welfare, or safety."
Roth acknowledged that following announcement of the hearings (held in Washington, D.C., May 14th and 15th), he had received a "very large number of phone calls and letters from individuals who are very satisfied with the Herbalife products, and have lost large amounts of weight." Many of these correspondents, and an estimated 3,000 Herbalife distributors who marched on the
second day, were obviously on the defensive. So was the Food and Drug Administration, for, as the senator put it, the purpose of the hearings was "to find out if the public is being adequately protected when it buys and consumes
diet products."

In his opening remarks, Roth made a distinction between "miracle pills and creams," tinted sunglasses, plastic ear forms and other "patently fraudulent products" and the very low calorie (VLC) products that can actually produce weight loss but may not be safe. His major concern with the VLC products, he specified, "is with what the Food and Drug Administration is doing and what it
is not doing, particularly when serious questions have been raised both within
the FDA and outside this agency about the safety of such products....

We are dealing with a multi-billion dollar industry which produces items ingested into
the human body. Yet the FDA has been reticent to involve itself in low calorie
diets. I want to know why, because I think the public deserves to know conclusively about the safety of individual products now in the marketplace."

On the first day Roth's subcommittee heard testimony from scientists and VLC product users, all of whom submitted written statements as well. Most of the scientists favored more regulation of such dietary products; the users were pro and con.

One scientific witness was Judith S. Stern, Sc.D., professor of nutrition and director of the Food Intake Laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

She conceded: The inadequacy of traditional medicine to provide a permanent cure for obesity
has given rise to an entire industry of entrepreneurs who claim to be able to relieve the frustrations of the overweight. The ironic tragedy is that most diets work-at least initially-when they are followed. However, fad diets are usually quite restrictive in their food choices, may have unpleasant side effects, and most people cannot follow them for any length of time. In addition, when daily calories are restricted below 1,200, it becomes difficult
to satisfy all other nutrient needs.

Dr. Stern also made the distinction between "miracle cures" and VLC products.
Products in the former category include the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), claimed to decrease hunger, and various amino acid pills, said to release growth hormone. Both have been promoted with false claims based on legitimate
scientific discoveries that were overgeneralized and misrepresented, she noted.
Debunking claims that grapefruit or grapefruit extract can act in a catalytic manner enhancing breakdown of fat, Dr. Stern described her testimony last year which helped the U.S. Postal Service stop sales of Super Grapefruit Pills by a California company. Noting that these pills contained glucomannan, she reported that in 1980 she had conducted a double-blind study in which the test group received one gram of glucomannan while the control group was given a placebo.

Both groups were placed on a behavior
modification program. Both groups lost weight, she noted, but there were no statistically significant differences in hunger ratings or weight loss between them.

Dr. Stern also zeroed in on kelp/lecithin/cider vinegar/vitamin B6 combinations found in dietary products since 1974. Iodine-rich kelp is potentially harmful to a small number of individuals in whom high amounts of ingested iodine can cause thyroid trouble. The other three ingredients are worthless, she noted.

Another expert witness was Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D., professor of pharmacognosy (the science of medicines from natural sources) and dean of Purdue University's School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences. Here is my summary of Dr. Tyler's detailed analysis of various Herbalife products contained in the lengthy packet of written material released by Roth's subcommittee to the press:

Slim and Trim Formula #1 (46 cents per day), described in the sales literature "as a balanced protein powder made from natural vegetable soy, casein and whey protein." Tyler said the product is falsely represented in company literature
because there is nothing about a protein powder, per se, that will curb the appetite any more than an equivalent amount of protein derived from eating lean meat, nuts, or the like.

Further, no protein powder will "cleanse the
system" or facilitate "burning excess calories." It will supply needed daily nutrients, but no more effectively than a low-calorie diet, carefully balanced for carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins-as well as protein.

Slim and Trim Formula #2 (21 cents per day), described by the Herbalife organization as a special blend of 14 herbs plus kelp, lecithin, vitamin B6, and cider vinegar designed to cleanse the digestive system and naturally help
curb the appetite. Tyler said that, of its many herbal ingredients, none is actually present in sufficient quantity to produce significant physiological effects by itself. But he noted that four ingredients-senna, cascara sagrada,
dandelion root, and kelp-might work together to exert a laxative effect in sensitive individuals.

Slim and Trim Multivitamin and Multimineral Formula #3 (23 cents per day) is a fairly standard vitamin/mineral preparation with some herbal products added in such tiny amounts that they exert no significant effect. Unless vitamin
deficiency was present, Tyler noted, the product would be a complete waste of money.

Slim and Trim Linseed Oil Formula #4 (10 cents per day) contains small amounts of linseed oil but has no advantage over less expensive vegetable oils ordinarily used in the kitchen of the average home. (Moreover, as noted by the
next witness, the amount found in the formula will be obtained in food consumed in just one balanced meal per day.)

Cell-U-Loss (43 cents per day) is described in Herbalife literature as a product designed to attack cellulite, promote circulation, and eliminate excess fluids, is recommended for use with the Slim and Trim formulas. Tyler
noted that its tiny amounts of herbs would at most cause a slight diuresis (output of body water), but would have no effect whatsoever on appetite or body fat.

Herbal-aloe is said to aid digestion and cleanse the system. Although uncertain of the type of aloe contained in this product-which may be a
laxative-Tyler expressed deep concern over two of its other herbal ingredients. Comfrey, he said, is a known carcinogen, shown to produce
malignant tumors in the livers of rats when included in their diet. And the active constituent of chapparal, nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), was removed from the FDA's GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) list many years ago after it was shown to cause cysts and kidney damage in rats.

N.R.G. (Nature's Raw Guarana) (80 43 cents per day), claimed to increase energy, aid in mental alertness and produce a nutritional lift, is sold in tablets that contain small amounts of granular guarana, the seed of a South American plant known to contain about 5% caffeine. The amount of caffeine in the recommended dose of N.R.G. is about the same as that in a cup of strong coffee-but the presence of caffeine is not revealed in product labeling or literature. Thus, individuals sensitive to caffeine might be unwittingly harmed.

Schizandra Plus tablets are said to help combat stress and damage leading to premature aging. Although he suspected that the dosage of its ingredients was too low to exert pharmacological effects, Tyler indicated that tests are needed to determine whether chemicals extracted from schizandra can protect or harm the liver [see NF 2:29].

Tang Kuei (50 cents per day), said to help establish menstrual regularity and provide "herbal nutrition" for the whole body, contains dong quai (also known as dang gui and pinyan) and chamomile. These drugs -- used in traditional Chinese medicine -- have not been proved by Western standards. Tyler noted that even if they are effective, the amounts contained in Tang Kuei are far below those used in China. Moreover, under federal law, Schizandra Plus and Tang Kuei are unapproved new drugs that are not legal to sell in the United
States.

Overall, Tyler objected that
Some Herbalife products may well be toxic, at least to some consumers.

Herbalife literature and word-of-mouth recommendations build up false hopes in
consumers, most of whom are not able to benefit from the placebo effect.

It is particularly deceptive because they lead the public to believe that Herbalife products "contain a lot of wonderful herbs with marvelous health-giving properties when the amounts present in the products are too small to have any significant physiological effects in normal persons.

Consumers are thus paying good money for products which have no proven value.
Many of the same points were reiterated in an analysis of the various Herbalife formulas by F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D., associate professor of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a division chief at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York City.

"With very rapid weight loss, and particularly with diets low in carbohydrate, there is an early diuresis, that is, loss of water via the urine. This accounts for much of the weight loss of crash diets and much of this water is reaccumulated when the diet is stopped," said Dr. Pi-Sunyer. "With this water loss, great amounts of sodium, potassium, and chloride are lost, as well as lesser but substantial amounts of calcium, magnesium, and other minerals. These
must be replaced. If they are not, the electrical integrity of biological membranes may be lost, and one outcome of this may be cardiac arrhythmias."

Because dieters wish "to get on with it," there may be a tendency to take only the protein preparation, without supplementing it, as sometimes recommended, by a meal to bring the daily intake to at least 800 to 1,000 calories (of which 300 to 400 may be provided by the dietary product). Consumers also may ignore the
limited period, say four weeks, recommended by some diet purveyors, and incur added risk by consuming the preparation for a longer time, said Dr. Pi-Sunyer.

He also reported that a colleague, Theodore B. Van Itallie, M.D., had reexamined data of the victims of the liquid protein diets of 1977-1978 and found that "the less fat you are the more dangerous these diets are for you, the more likely you are to lose life-requiring protein, and the more at risk of dying you are. Since
these preparations are bought without restriction, many people take them who are
not very fat, and these people seem to be particularly at risk."

Two of the four laypersons who testified were constituents of Senator Roth's-one for Herbalife, the other against. Patricia s****.> taking Herbalife in August 1984. "After taking it for two months, losing five pounds and feeling much better," she was asked by friends "for more information about Herbalife." She soon became a distributor. She and her representatives since have sold it to over 300 people. "Herbalife has worked for me and my
customers," she told Roth and the subcommittee. "I believe the people who said
they felt better using the Herbalife products are stating the facts: their health problems improved through weight loss and sound nutrition. They are not saying that Herbalife is like a medicine that cures a disease. No one I know has ever claimed this." Another user, Greg Martin, of Dover, Delaware, lost about 13 pounds in three months and "felt better than I had in years," after starting on Herbalife products in September 1984. He and his wife began selling the products in October, eventually building a customer list of 100 with ten distributors. But
most of his customers suffered from constipation when using Slim and Trim Formulas, and 10 -15%t had other problems, he reported. One man who had had two previous heart bypass operations was taking Herbalifeline because Martin "understood from the literature that it was good for heart problems. This man became extremely constipated."
Because he was unable to get answers to his questions from Herbalife headquarters, Martin stopped selling its products to retail customers at the end of February. "I do not want to be associated with a company who claims its
products are safe for everyone to use and then will not deal with [health] problems," he testified. He expressed the conviction "that diet products and food supplements can do a lot of good. I would not want to see them prohibited."

He suggested, however, that standards be established and that the FDA "enforce
these standards so that the public can be confident that these products are
safe."

The final two lay witnesses testified to personal tragedies. Bernard Lehman, of
Anaheim, California, formerly from a town near Nashville, Tennessee, said that
he is not able to work because he has Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer.

A few months ago, while "basically bedridden," he claimed that a distributor in
Tennessee told him and his wife that she could lose weight taking Herbalife products, that both could earn needed income, and that "the Herbalife products would help to cure my cancer."
Lehman named the distributor and charged, "He told us this orally and showed us
some brochures which said this" in writing.

"However, he gave us different
brochures without this information and said that he only had one copy of the special brochure, and he had to keep it for his use." Lehman summarized by saying that the distributor "basically said that the Herbalife products would act as a cure-all."

Although he and his wife had "bad reactions" to the Herbalife products, they continued taking them "because we believed that we could make lots of money and we thought our own bad reactions to taking the products were unusual." They spent about $1,800 for inventory and publications and sold about $100 worth of
Herbalife products before asking to get out and get their money back.

They eventually received $1,000 from the distributor and still have $700 worth of
product they "would just like to get rid of...and forget about." Cynthia Guillaume Lee, of New Orleans, told the pitiful story of her late husband, Bivian Lewis Lee, Jr., who had retired as a National Football League
player in 1976. He became a Herbalife distributor in October 1984 because "the
extra money sounded real good," said Mrs. Lee.

Although he was not overweight
and "was very much against taking any kind of diet product," he began taking a
Herbalife product because "he said that if he was going to sell it, he would at
least try it out."

Two weeks later, Bivian, age 35, was dead. His widow testified:I know that I'm not a doctor. I know that I'm not qualified to give medical
opinions. But I do know that my husband was a perfectly healthy man. I saw him deteriorate from the perfectly healthy man to his death. And it all began when he started taking Herbalife. I want to tell what happened to me-it's not easy
for me to do this-because I want the subcommittee, or the Federal Food and Drug Administration or somebody to investigate why my husband was alive and well until he started on the Herbalife products and now he's dead. I want to encourage the subcommittee to look into this so that other young mothers won't find themselves in my position.

Mrs. Lee submitted an affidavit by Dr. Van Itallie, who had reviewed the autopsy protocol prepared by the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office and other records relating to Bivian Lee's death. The affidavit cites an article Van Itallie co-authored, entitled "Cardiac dysfunction in obese dieters: a potentially
lethal complication of rapid, massive weight loss" [American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition 39:695-702, 1984].

The article discusses the cases of 17 obese but
otherwise healthy persons on VLCs who died of cardiac arrhythmia. "Basically," the affidavit says, "severe restriction of caloric intake causes the body to ulitize and deplete its protein. The heart is a muscle, made of protein, and it is not spared . . . . depletion of protein from the heart may be followed by
cardiac arrhythmia and death.

I refer to this as the 'liquid protein syndrome', but it may develop from any drastic reduction in caloric intake. My thesis
further holds that persons with lesser stores of body fat are more likely to experience the cardiac dysfunction. Fatter dieters seem to survive longer because they are better able to conserve their body protein."

Van Itallie found this thesis consistent with Bivian Lee's case, particularly because he was "persuaded by Lee's Body Mass Index, indicating that he had lesser stores of body fat."
______________________
This article was published in the September 1985 issue of Nutrition Forum, when
Mr. Fanning edited and published a newsletter called Con$umer New$weekly. Before that, he was a science writer for The Atlanta Journal and director of information for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bivian
Lee's lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum which was undoubtedly substantial.

And this as well...
Herbalife Class Action Settlement Reveals "Secret" Business, Similar to Amway/Quixtar's Exposed on NBC Dateline
1. July 14, 2004

A $6 million settlement reached by attorneys for victims of Herbalife and its recruiting organization, The Newest Way to Wealth, reveals the same type of "secret" business that was exposed at Amway/Quixtar in the May 7, 2004 NBC Dateline. Both Amway/Quixtar and Herbalife are members of the Direct Selling Association.
Pyramid Scheme Alert has formally requested that the FTC investigate Amway/Quixtar's recruiting practices. It is now expanding this request to also include Herbalife, which follows the same pattern of deception.

The victims of Herbalife's recruiters tell the same story as those interviewed during NBC's expos on Amway/Quixtar. They are lured to recruitment meetings and told about the extraordinary income opportunity in the business, in which speakers claim they have personally become wealthy. Recruits are then told they also need to purchase books, tapes, marketing materials and attend seminars offered by the kingpins in order to become as successful as they are.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Business Journal where Herbalife is based, "The suit alleged that top-level distributors made more money selling independent promotional materials, which were supposed to help the lower-level distributors drive sales, than on the actual sales of Herbalife products."

This is exactly the charge made to NBC Dateline by top-level Amway whistle blowers. They stated that the claims by Amway's kingpins of high income from Amway product sales are false and that actually the top-level recruiters earn most of their money from the recruitment business itself, not from the Amway business. The NBC report focused on the recruitment operations of Amway kingpin Bill Britt of North Carolina
Victims in both cases, Amway/Quixtar's and Herbalife's, stated that these recruiting programs operate as secret pyramid schemes in which the upper level recruiters pay the lower levels a portion of the money gained from sales of these recruitment-based products (books, tapes, seminar fees, etc.) when they bring in new recruits. These products are not resold to the public on a retail base. They operate as an "endless chain" in which investments can only be recouped by recruiting others who would then do the same.

The Direct Selling Association, of which Herbalife and Amway are members, is currently lobbying state legislatures and the US Congress (HR 1220) to enact a new law that will legalize non-retailing endless chain marketing schemes. It would also exclude the sales of "tools" sold to recruits from the definition of a pyramid scheme. Pyramid Scheme Alert has sent warnings to all members of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, which is reviewing the bill, alerting them of the harm this bill will inflict on consumers and informing them of the special interests that are promoting it.

Pyramid Scheme Alert has also called on Congresswoman Sue Myrick of Charlotte, North Carolina to withdraw her name from sponsorship of the bill. Mrs. Myrick has been an Amway distributor, spoken at Amway recruitment meetings where these deceptive practices occur and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from Amway/Quixtar kingpins.

Hope this was helpful for you. if you;d like to get more, just type [ Herbalife scam ] into your google search bar, then be prepared for all the things that come up!

Best regards,

Hi,
I have lost 7000 with Herbalife
I will attack them in justice.
I would like to have recent informations about:

1-mulitilevel marketing (USA Europe)

2-recent suitlaws

3- other sites "herbalife"

4- i think that "Financial Freedom Online" is a Herbalife new site. Is it true?

4- Sorry for my poor english, all informations are Wellcome

Many thanks

After seeing a tv ad called 54jobsmyway.com i got information about herbalife not 54 jobs herbalife!! at this point i felt ripped off but i played along with all the phone calls from the sponser while i made a trip to the library for some research i checked out a book called homemade money starting smart and thankfully it gave me this website to check out ripoff scams. after reading all the information from other consumers i cant wait for this sponser to call back this afternoon!!! he was all fired up when i said i wanted to start in the supervisor position.Being a supervisor at my real job i cant wait to tell this jerk, your fired!!!!!! Thank you to all for your info you may have saved my family thousands of dollars R.T.