Complaint Review: Trey Knight - Jacksonville Florida

The owners of this scam continue to take advantage of  1000s of new victims weekly by convincing them into joining as they reap the benefits of a purported $500Million dollar nationwide criminal enterprise. 2010 started off with the Attorney General of North Dakota issuing a cease and desist for operating a business in that state without the proper licensing. That was followed by the
Montana Securities Commissioner, Monica Lindeen also shutting them down, but this time, it was for operating as an illegal endless recruiting pyramid scheme. The company was forced to change their business practices (in an attempt to make their business appear to be legal. Can you do that if you were already legal or is that an oxymoron), charge only $75.00 entrance fee (from the then current $299.00) to new Montanans who wished to explore the American Dream through FHTM and refund almost $1,000,000 to the good folks of that state who made no money and wanted a refund of monies paid.

FHTM was also forced to produce (one time only) an income disclosure statement (IDS) which according to industry expert, Robert FitzPatrick who is the President of Pyramid Scheme
Alert, is so skewed that it isnt worth the paper it is written on because the figures do not include the almost 30% who did not make even a dime in this business opportunity. Looking at the numbers produced by FHTM itself, over 90%
fail.

In talking to FHTM reps, they insist on telling the story that every business is a Pyramid and so is the government. What they fail to differentiate is what is a legal and an illegal pyramid scheme. They go on to explain that 95% of all businesses in America fail and the team they have an opportunity to build in FHTM will produce a lifetime of residual income. FHTM claims that building the Fortune opportunity is a willable, trustable and saleable enterprise, but that is false. They have
coined the phrase, Loyal Customer. In fact, the reality is that when reps drop out of this business (and 90% or better will do so within 6 months) all of those loyal customers are gone along with the residual income. Most sales of products and services are to the IRs that have paid for the right to be part of this business opportunity.

Existing IRs saw multiple compensation changes that were sold to them as a message from God and as another pay raise yet it was merely a way to screw more at the bottom of this pyramid and enrich those that were hand-picked by the self proclaimed King of MLM, Paul Orberson.

In fact there were more than a half dozen compensation changes that occurred in 2010 which somehow parallels the dozen state Attorneys General (IL, TX, SC, NC, CA, KY, ND and MT) that
began active investigations into this alleged pyramid scheme. FHTM had an F rating with the KY BBB until November/December 2010, when top leaders in the organization posted bulletins asking for their IRs to report FHTM as a model company which assisted in raising the current rating to a C. What a sham that system is. Self rating goes against the grain of having the BBB in the first
place.

According to Corporate Frauds Watch: Like the bosses, and reality-inverting propagandists, of the 'Amway' mob, the bosses, and reality-inverting propagandists, of the 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing' mob have steadfastly pretended that:  Their direct selling company is perfectly lawful and is associated with all manner of trusted household-names in the USA. They cannot be held responsible if some rogue 'Independent FHTM Business Owners' do not obey the company's own rules which oblige them regularly to sell significant quantities of good-value products, and services, to the public for a profit. 

At the same time, numerous dissidents, testify that the 'FHTM' plan for financial freedom is,
in point of fact, a dissimulated closed-market swindle, in which unlawful internal payments (in exchange for effectively-unsalable wampum) have been arbitrarily defined as lawful external 'sales.' In this way, tens of thousands of 'FHTM' adherents continue to be deceived into handing over regular cash-payments to a counterfeit 'direct selling company' controlled by a little gang of sanctimonious racketeers, on the pretext that  anyone can retire from work by being their own loyal 'FHTM ' customer and by recruiting their friends and relations to be their own loyal customers, etc. ad infinitum.

Fortune Hi-Tech has lied about everything in their business presentations since day one including statements about being debt-free, its D&B rating and its business relationships/partnerships with
real fortune 100 companies to cover up their illegal ways and to produce the aura that they are some way legal because of these affiliations (Legal by Association). Since 2010 major companies like GE, DuPont, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Travelocity, Home Depot and Peter Lamas have either run from these relationships or claimed they never existed in the first place including the their demand that FHTM discontinue the unauthorized use of their coveted logos, trademarks and names in presentations and printed materials. Fortune thought it was ok to use the logos of major international enterprises to enhance their own image in order to appear as if they were legal when in fact their entire enterprise is built on misrepresentations. They attempted to tie themselves to
Fortune Magazine until ex-representatives revealed the truth, henceforth the recent (end of 2010) disclaimer on the bottom of the FHTM corporate website that now states FHTM is not sponsored by, endorsed by, affiliated with, or otherwise associated with, Time Inc. or Fortune Magazine. For years this company has used the names of famous people to provide evidence of legitimacy, all which were lies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyGaQfDP--c&feature=related

The nightmare for representatives deepened as FHTM was about to hold its national convention in Lexington, Kentucky in September 2010. On the eve of the convention USA Today appeared there to interview IRs and attend its presentations. It was the same day that Fortune, its officers and 40 top distributors were served with its first of two class action lawsuits claiming mail and wire fraud, RICO violations, pyramid scheme and money laundering.

The FHTM outside legal team got an early Christmas present with the filing of the 2nd class-action
lawsuit in the Southern District of California on December 22, 2010. This lawsuit mirrors, in many ways, the one originally filed in Kentucky in early September with the addition of multiple violations of California consumer protection laws. The California judge recently sent that case to combine with
the Kentucky one.

FHTM has only succeeded in recent years because of the recession and the fact that its top reps in 2004 brought their teams from the defunct Excel Communications (Another MLM that operated in
the gray area of the law until it went bankrupt). They were hand-picked by Paul Orberson to be the top reps in FHTM, paid to bring their teams, given large cash bonuses and a back door deal which included a piece of the pie (equity). They are referred to as the Fab 6 by Paul Orberson. This enterprise will always remain private to hide these side deals and the money made by its
founders.

How can representatives in 2011 continue to tout this as the best marketing plan and business opportunity ever when the founders have been caught in so many lies, changed the compensation plan to further enrich those at the top, have such a huge 95%+ failure rate, are being sued in Federal court by ex-reps as well as ex-vendors and have multiple states investigating their illegal
ways?

They buy magazine covers, give to charity and self published their own autobiography in an effort to prove legitimacy. Some reps even claim that they are approved to do business in all 50 states. That is far from the truth as no State ever approves or disapproves the business plan of any business.

In 2010 Fortune made a decision to solicit the Latino markets throughout the USA and recruit by   promising green cards. They dont care whether the Latino immigrants are legal or not. Anyone
can join FHTM if they pay the fees. If you are an illegal immigrant, an unemployed truck driver or just a fool this business is for you. If you dont mind operating an enterprise that never can be willed, sold or profitable - this business is for you. If you dont mind screwing your friends and family to
get into a business with you that you know they will lose money in this business is for you. If you dont mind buying or selling overpriced goods and services this business is for you. If you have the ability to tell folks this is your destiny per Gods word this business is for you. If you are a great
liar this business is for you.

Most of the revenues created by FHTM reps are made by recruiting others into this Ponzi scheme and not from the residual income as they claim. 80% or better sales are to the reps themselves
so they can qualify their business in order to get paid bonuses for bringing in others. This violates the FTC rules and the laws in almost 50 states.

In 2011 FHTM was added to the joint investigation by the FTC and individual state AGs Operation Empty Promises. It was recently discovered that many representatives at the Executive and National level are pocking huge sums of cash from presentations and meeting and skirting their obligations to the IRS. This is not only promoted by but is also endorsed by Paul Orberson the self proclaimed highest paid network marketer of all times.

Please help to stop this scam from ruining the lives of another 100K Americans.

For more on this company go to www.fhtmclassaction.info