Amway Global: Fact, Fiction or Business Opportunity Fraud?   Perhaps you have seen the television commercials for Amway global promoting that Amway operates in “50 different countries and helps put over 3 million people into business for themselves… we are a company of opportunity”. Do the “Independent Business Owners (IBO’s) actually own an independent “business”?

They certainly are induced to “invest” in their own business but there are quite a few differences. First, IBO’s have no control over the cost of their own business products, which high level leaders have described in court documents as “hopelessly overpriced”. Second, you could spend a decade investing in “your own business” and building a network of people and if you decide to leave for more lucrative opportunity and bring the organization you developed (your equity) with you, chances are you may be litigated against and find that Amway/Quixtar (and its well funded legal teams) considers your downline line of sponsorship their property. You also can have your income literally stopped on a day’s notice while your legal expenses are being driven through the roof. In what truly “Independent Business” can someone else literally shut off your income and claim your “business” after a decade of work and investment?

The documentation seems to support a nearly 99% loss rate for IBO’s in the US. Documentation also supports that Amway Senior management has known that deceptive practices were being utilized upon its trusting distributor force as far back as the early 1980’s. See additional details located at The Amquix Smoking Gun. Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General Bruce Craig prosecuted Amway in the early 1980’s and stated “tax returns (obtained for this litigation) of all active Wisconsin Direct Distributors, the company's top 1%, showed an average net income of minus $900.” I was shocked to learn that it was almost identical tactics that were utilized upon myself and our organization decades later.

Justice Norris, in the recent MOD initiated and supported UK Government case against Amway reported in 2008 that out of an IBO population of 33,000, “only about 90 made sufficient incomes to cover the costs of actively building their business.” If this is accurate, that seems to be close a 100% loss rate for those investing in the Amway UK “business opportunity”.

I personally advised senior management of, in my experience, the 99% loss rate for IBO’s when I terminated my distributorship on August 8, 2003. I advised the corporation that I could not accept “blood money” that was generated from new people who were systematically being deceived. The shocking events that followed are detailed in my book "Merchants of Deception".

The corporation and its high level motivational recruiters have been plagued with lawsuits and/or arbitrations for decades yet continue to recruit new consumers to “invest in the opportunity”. This is despite full knowledge of losses for almost all participants, similar in some ways to the actions of Bernie Madoff, the infamous Wall Street Swindler. New consumer investors are simply recruited to replace almost all who have lost and drop out, with much of the money being transferred from those at the bottom to those at the top of the pyramid (the corporation and a small percentage of high level distributors). The movement of products simply camouflage the transfer of funds from new investors on up.

Surprisingly, billionaire Founder Rich DeVos made the following statement on the cover of an Amagram:

Quite a large number of DeVos, Van Andel and Senior management audios and videos have been acquired by the MOD community. The many audio and videos in so far now represent decades of representations starting with the first speech on file from 1983. If you have any additional legally recorded audio or videos of senior management speaking to IBO’s please contact me. Below is an example of the representations made in just a single day, from a single seminar for IBO’s. This was recorded at an IBO meeting in which Dick DeVos, Dave Van Andel and Steve Van Andel were the featured speakers.

	“And I just want to take you -- to thank you for taking your time to dedicate to dedicate to your business and I wanna respect that time tonight. So, we're just going to talk about a couple of things. I -- I know it will surprise you but I'm going to talk about the Amway business. Now, not a -- not a bad deal.”
	“But what I would like to say to you is that I've had the privilege of seeing the Amway business from the early days to the present days, from the inside to the outside and I am prepared to give you tonight despite the challenges that I've endured in the last six months an absolutely ringing endorsement. The Amway business today remains the best business opportunity in the world bar none.”
	“So as I look down the list of things, I look down the list of things and said, you know this is an extraordinary business. This is an extraordinary opportunity and now remains an exceptional time to be involved in the Amway business.”
	“You're involved with unquestionably the best business opportunity in the world. I'm willing to bet you that you will never have a better opportunity presented to you can what this business offers. I will guarantee that. This is the best opportunity that's going to come across in your lifetime. Please, not for my sake, not for my sake, I'm fine, it's not about me, but don't let it pass you by in. Don't let it pass you by without taking hold and giving it your best shot. We're here for you.”
	“I hope tonight being in an auditorium of excited distributors makes you a believer in your Amway business.  You know we keep saying it, but we really do have the best opportunity around.”
	“Wow. We can't be certain of the future, but considering where we have been and where we are now we're determined to keep the momentum of our position as being the best business opportunity in the world. You see, there is no second place. There is only one number one and it's Amway.”
	“But let's consider the truth.  The facts that prove we're still by far the best business opportunity around.”
	“We're making sure we have the facts to support our claim that we are the best.  We want you to have the information that proves to people that Amway is their best choice.  We know the work we do today will create our tomorrow.  And all of our work has one overriding theme.  All of our actions have to focus on helping you to achieve your personal goals.”
	“You're here today because the Amway business is one of the big things that you put first in your life.  Well I wanna personally thank you for making the Amway business one of the important things in your life.  I know that lives can get quickly crowded.  You are Amway.  You are the reason that Amway is the best business opportunity in the world.  It was yesterday, it is today, and because of you it will be tomorrow as well.”

From everything they are saying, it sounds like it must be the best opportunity in the world. Are the representations above out right fraudulent? Well, let’s let the growing MOD global community express the reality of this “opportunity” as they experienced it. Thousands of IBO contacts have come in and continue to come in daily from around the world. This is a small cross section of them, used with permission. The opinions expressed are solely those of each individual IBO based upon their experience with Amway and its related motivational organizations.

Netherlands - “Every think go on the same way your story tells. We had to go to seminars, have to buy books and tapes. We have the profiles of success because if we want go diamond we have the had that book, so the tell us. We go every week to a meeting and every month to a seminar in Belgium. Most write down ore dreams and put them on the door of the fridge. Every week a tapes, so own, so own. The learn us to go interest people on the street , on doors and by phone. I did that, alone or with my brother in law. We spend lot of money and I give up a second income otherwise we never go direct, so te tell us. We had make at least 3% every month personal otherwise you get no help so Jolanda did the artistry partys almost every weekend. I go every evening after work interest people, door to door and show the plan…. Now I read your book, thank God I never succeed, you cannot make money I know now. I believe every word you write, the same thinks happened here…. This is not working for the Dutch people."

Australia - From Sydney - “I thought I was changing for the better....my whole family thought of that....my kids were dreaming about becoming Diamonds... ..... but 6 months later.....A$10,000 went down the drain and I made A$800 all up because of a Emma Page party.....Hey, knock, knock......it's all about freedom, isn't it? I'm so broke coz of Amway, it's not funny..... I must also say how scared I am to trust anyone in these days....” “We managed to keep the cost under control by refusing to go into debt with it, so we spend no more than an average of $1,000 per year for 12 years.  I suppose that’s enough when you add it up?    Most of that was in tools and tapes from the Yager organisation – I guess we in the “Yager system” all made Dexter a wealthy man with our regular as clockwork contributions to “the system”! "I was always skeptical and refused to be totally brainwashed, so probably kept some perspective during our time “in” and only stayed because we became strong friends with our Emeralds.  That has now faded as they moved away and seemed to have been awakened too.  We have never broached the subject with them but know they are disenchanted with the Company itself and their attitude here is Australia .  My wife was devastated when I made the decision to drop out as her dreams had, as a consequence, evaporated before her eyes.  It took some time for her to “ground” again and realise that those nagging fears that we had been led on, were actually true. She is fine now and is quite enjoying the concept of not having to look at everyone we meet as a target for sponsorship.  Her personality has returned and she feels, as I do, free.  It’s sort of like leaving a job you don’t like – that feeling when you finally walk out the door for the last time!” “I was extremely relieved to find this book on the internet...... I had never really heard about Amway or its ghoulish cousin Network 21, until last week. My boss approached me after work to "share a business opportunity". She steered the questions until I was in a corner..yes of course I would like to be my own boss, I would like to be able to retire at an early age etc etc... The next step was to invite me to a weekend regional conference in Canberra. At no point was cost mentioned. I tried to wriggle out of it by saying that I needed time to think. She persuaded me to travel the 4 hours and give up my entire weekend. The total cost of the weekend was around $800!!!! She got me to sign up, and it really is difficult to resist your boss!! I signed on the dotted line, had to pay for my starter kit, and for a box of Amway products, most of which i will never use. Upon the assurances that I would be able to do all my grocery shopping through Amway, I was keen to check out the catalogue (cost $5.00). Well, I quickly did the arithmetic and worked out that on average I would have to spend between $400 and $600 per month to achieve my 100pv. My husband and I do not spend that in a month on ALL our grocery/household expenses. Furthermore, most the items are in bulk, which is not suitable for my life. The second line of attack is the pressure to subscribe to the CEP which is the Network 21 part of "the business". I cannot work out what this is really all about. Seems there are "training" sessions every week, every weekend and so on. Of course there is the ongoing expense of receiving informative teaching aids in the form of Cds and DVDs.  Naturally I should be listening to them while driving to work, back home, before i go to bed at night etc etc.” Single IBO Mother of Two in Australia loses home, click here.

United Kingdom - “Hi I've just finished reading the book. My experiences are identical. Over a 5 year period I estimate I spent £6000.00 through my downline on tools and seminars.” UK IBO loses tens of thousands, click here.

Romania - “We are from Romania, so here besides Amway there is Network 21 as a supporting leadership and materials company. I have been to 2 wes, held by Nwtowrk 21. The first thing which triggered my mind was when I made a calculation of how much revenue N21 had in that wes, which was about 300.000 Euro. After that I talked a bit to my wife's upline (he is an emerald) and asked some direct questions and received unsatisfactory answers. I also asked hime if the speakers on the stage receive money from N21 and he said he does not want to answer to that question. I also mentioned him about yr book and he said that he does not want to do a crossline by reading more about this stuff.”

South Africa - “Dear Eric, I spent the past week reading and re-reading your wonderful book. I saw the last ten years of my life flash by and can fully empathise with every word you have written. The methods are exactly the same here in South Africa. Fortunately for me I could not continue in the business because I had suffered a heart attack a few years ago due to the pressures of the business. Thank God for courageous human beings like you. I also lost quite a bit of money.”

India - "Recently….criminal cases were filed against Amway India Enterprises in various courts in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India. And more would follow. A housewife approached me with the sad story of how her husband deserted her for not obeying his diktat to work for Amway scheme. The helpless housewife with two children is now facing problems to make both ends meet. The Amway in its training of distributors tells them to treat people as enemies if they do not agree to join the scheme. This is how the Amway is destroying the families and social relations all over the world.”

Sweden - “So, all in all, reading your storie made me feel clearer. I am happy that I got out of it. For very short time I lost around 5 thousands Swiss francs.”

Russia - “Yes, I from Russia. Every month my wife compelled to redeem the goods on 200 points, it about 8000 roubles, not considering books and audiodisks. For 3 months we have lost 50000 roubles. Every month her(it) forced to spend the salary for production and seminars. Now due to you at it(her) eyes on this deceit have opened. Big to you thanks that have helped to return the wife from paws of this sect.”

Canada - “Thank you for keeping me inform about the Amway/Quixtar scam development. I do not remember how or why I read your story with the Amway system and your mission a year ago, but I know that if I gave you my email address, it is because (don’t know why) I strongly believed you. I asked myself, Why personally, I have had a 4 year history of deception and manipulation regarding the Yager System … …. I have kept every receipt of every functions, seminar, open meetings, weekend extravaganza, and every tapes and books that I bought over all theses years!  Yes 11 years later, I still got them!    You also mention in your email that you would like it if I can give a testimony! Yes I can! If it can help one case! I still have the official document they make you sign to become a subscriber to the tape of the week and the book of the month. I kept a book on every purchase that I made, I still have it.   It cost me about 70,000 dollars in 4 years (1995-1999), to follow the system, At that time, I was working for myself making a very comfortable living. I was attending every open meeting in Quebec city, countless times in Montreal, I traveled to every (must go) functions and I was a dedicated subscriber to the tape of the week: (both english and french) and the book of the month..."

United States - “Thank you for revealing the truth. As a young man, I too suffered from the Amway liars. While still in college, they sucked me into their "business" and I lost so much money, energy, and sleep.... ....about four years worth. If you ever need an eyewitness account, you can rely on me to provide one. I don't know exactly what it cost me, but a conservative guess would be $5000. A large chunk of life is what it cost me.” “My name is Melanie, I have an 8 mo. old daughter and a 25yr old fiance named Jerry, and we live in York PA. For as long as i've known him, Jerry has been investing time and money into Amway/Quixtar. He has been in over 3years and never turned a profit. According to his taxes, he has lost AT LEAST 8k not to mention the hours, which i calculated to be over 650 hours of his life. I have suffered emotionally, Jerry is missing out on his daughter's life (btw he did not even celebrate baby's first christmas). The indoctrination is so strong that jerry said he’d leave me for the business. He has a complete lack of concern for his wife-to-be and daughter, the 2 very ppl that he claimed to be doing all this sacrificing for. But you want facts, and the fact is that jerry is nowhere close to platinum level, he has led himself to financial failure and is leading a team of about 20 who are just as doomed as he is. For anyone who is in and claims to be doing this for their family: if you are losing money and do not quit soon, you may end up losing a lot more than that.” “My name is Zach, and I was a distributor in the Amway business for about one year in the state of Georgia. The time frame was September 2007 to October 2008. All of the common representations listed on your e-mail were made to me. I specifically remember a CD done by a man who was my hero, and he said, "My point is, don't question the system. If something is wrong, it's with you." He also proceeded to explain that if you weren't making money you were either "stupid or lazy", and it was up to you to figure it out. His implication was that the $7.50 check for being on a 100 pt ditto was making money. No one that I knew was making a net income in the business. I was counseled by an upline who claimed to be a Ruby, but that was a lie. I also later found out that my upline "diamond" had never once legitimately qualified. I did not make a profit. I estimate my losses at $7,000. Honestly, I believe I was one of the lucky ones.” “I was recruited from a home fellowship/ bible study type of church meeting where an enthusiastic young man …. had a new 'business' that he was excited about. … Five years later, i'd (only) broken my 100 pts. pin-level when it suddenly occurred to me that maybe this wasn't exactly the right opportunity for a basically shy guy. So, in this severely truncated story i became five years older, hopefully a little wiser; and i can only make a rough estimate of having spent somewhere close to 8-10k usd, chasing my elusive 'dream.' But i am, and remain, grateful to have gotten out as soon as i did.” “Dear Eric, I would like to thank you for making your book Merchants of Deception available for free. My son is 24 and has been involved with Quixtar since October of 2004. He is currently $10,000 in credit card debt as a result of being involved with this organization and still believes that he will make it big in The Business. That's bad enough, but what's even worse is how much it has changed him. I don't even know what to talk to him about anymore because his only interest is Quixtar and I told him that. He has given up all other interests and friends. He still lives at home, but avoids his Dad and I as much as possible. He use to be very close with his younger sister, but she can't stand how this has changed him. It seems like the counseling that he gets has undermined all of his upbringing, which I thought I had done a pretty good job of. One day, fairly early on, he told me that they were teaching him how to be a man. I was crushed. I asked him 'what do you think I've been doing?'. His response was I am just jealous. When I thought about that later I know those weren't his own words. I am just sick about him being involved in Quixtar. I have asked him lots of questions to try to make him think clearly, which according to everything I've read and everyone I've talked to says that that is what you have to do. It doesn't matter what you ask, he has a pat answer for everything. I have even told him that those aren't his own words, that he can think for himself. His upline has him so brainwashed into duplicating that I don't know what I could possibly ask him that could get through to him. I have even asked him what credentials his upline has to counsel anyone. It galls me that these deceptive people use God to use others for their own greedy purpose. I would love to believe that the government will someday soon shut Quixtar and other MLMs down, but it seems that many of them are just as crooked. Thank you again for offering your book for free. It is a great source of information for so many.” “Thank you very much for the email. I have been wondering about you. My husband continues to spend just as much in Amway Dream Builders as ever. He is on his 10th year of annual loses of $3,500.-$6,500.00. He is so brain washed that I wonder if he will ever get out of this. I am sure he should have gotten a prize or something for purchasing over $1,000.00 of merchandise in December, in the midst of a great economic crisis and Christmas. It didn't matter to him. Most of the purchase was for himself. Of course when you say, over $1,000.00 in merchandise, you are not talking about a whole lot of merchandise. Especially when you are buying cases of $2.00 a bottle water and other over priced stuff. I am really stumped in where to go now. This drives me crazy. “ “I have such a bad taste in my mouth concerning yours, mine, and all of our experiences with Amway robber barons…. the inflated prices, the pyramid top end versus the bottom...they are just all the same….. Sometimes I have dreams, well, nightmares that I am back in Amway and we have this burgeoning downline, which means we have to show the plan and go to seminars, and I wake up in a sweat, because in the dream, I know that I am still not making money and never will....I am sure you have had similar dreams. It’s like post-traumatic stress....” Hundreds of thousands of dollars in victim losses, click here.

“The purpose of this Complaint is to enjoin Quixtar from harassing and intimidating Plaintiffs and Class Members with repetitive arbitrations asserting trumped up violations of Quixtar’s unilaterally enacted non-compete, non-solicitation, and trade secret rules, and to obtain a declaration that these rules and Quixtar’s arbitration agreement are unenforceable. Quixtar has undertaken this abusive litigation strategy to bankrupt former Quixtar distributors and to coerce them into abandoning the lawful pursuit of independent businesses as distributors of MonaVie, LLC (“MonaVie”). The absence of administrative constraints in arbitration has permitted Quixtar to run roughshod over its opponents, obtaining lengthy pre-arbitration schedules with essentially unlimited discovery that permits Quixtar’s many in–house counsel and several litigating lawfirms to engage them in a war of attrition. Quixtar’s abhorrent litigation strategy has been implemented through a network of secret arbitrations…” which are being conducted pursuant to an arbitration agreement and rules that have been held to be unconscionable and unenforceable by numerous federal courts.”

“Over time, however, it became apparent that the Quixtar business model was becoming overly dependent upon self-consumption. Exorbitant pricing made it nearly impossible for IBOs to sell Quixtar products to non-IBOs. The attrition rate for new IBOs was overwhelming.”

“…a majority of IBOs generate no product volume at all, not even purchases from their own business, because “they cannot reconcile in their own mind the buying of overpriced products.”

“Quixtar retained consultants to study its business model. Not enough IBOs were making money in the business, and while Quixtar had historically counted on recruitment to drive business growth, it was now time to re-establish a business model which encompassed both retailing and recruiting. Quixtar had turned itself into a self-consumption business with few products that could be sold to non-IBOs, and new IBOs could not make money.”

“As part of its litigation strategy, Quixtar began to subpoena in the Nevada Action,
TEAM-affiliated IBOs (who were not parties to the Nevada Action) to produce documents and
give deposition testimony. Over 45 subpoenas were issued on a single day.”

“Quixtar-style arbitration eliminates all of the safeguards of litigation – open forum, jury of peers, rule of law, evidentiary reliability, reasonable limits ondiscovery – but fails to provide any of the anticipated benefits.”

“Quixtar has relied upon its unilaterally-enacted confidentiality rules to shroud each proceeding under a cloak of secrecy so litigants in one forum are prohibited from learning of the evidence, rulings, and results of the others.”

“Quixtar has extended this cloak of secrecy to federal and state court litigation,obtaining in some cases protective orders which have sealed the entire docket from public view. Such orders have been entered over the strenuous objection of Quixtar’s opponents.Quixtar has used such orders to block the flow of information, particularly adverse documents, testimony and rulings, from its opponents in parallel litigation. Such tactics have enabled Quixtar to maintain the strategic advantage of having access to discovery and evidence that its opponents do not have. Quixtar has repeatedly used documents to depose a witness in one proceeding that –unbeknownst to the witness or his lawyer – were produced in another.”

“ROC 11.5.48 requires the arbitrator to impose attorneys fees, arbitration fees and
costs in favor of the prevailing party. Obviously designed to intimidate IBOs with fear of financial ruin, the effect of the rule is to deter IBOs from even attempting to pursue or defend their rights under Quixtar’s rigged arbitration system.”

“The Morrison plaintiffs were forced to endure three and a half years in Quixtar’s star chamber arbitration proceedings, to the tune of many millions of dollars, only to have the Fifth Circuit, ten years after the original suit was filed, summarily vacate the Arbitrator’s $7,000,000 fee-shifting award because of the patent unenforceability of the arbitration agreement. Many of the plaintiffs had to declare bankruptcy along the way, and the surviving plaintiffs went back to federal court to litigate their claims anew.”

“Millions of dollars have been spent thus far on the attorneys fees, arbitration fees, case management fees and other expenses incurred in defense of the Woodward Arbitration. The expense of the protracted arbitration proceedings in Morrison forced plaintiffs into bankruptcy.”

Any legal case requires adequate discovery of documents. Another Pacer document here reveals that:

“Specifically, MonaVie requests the Court enter an order denying Amway’s Motion to Quash1 and permitting the subpoena recipients, Messrs. Kantor, Boulware, and Sankbiel, to produce documents responsive to MonaVie’s nine specific document requests.”

It is important to know who these attorneys are that Quixtar appears to not want to provide documents relevant to the case. They may have seen critical documentation and know where the “skeletons lie”, so to speak. Dan Boulware represented Kenny Stewart and Brig Hart in many years’ legal battles with the corporation. Andy Kantor represented other clients against the corporation and I believe the case settled. Bill Sankbeil represents current clients against the corporation. I would add to this list of those who may have critical documentation of the corporation and its legal team’s activities the following: Attorney James B. Meade and Attorney Brok Akers as well as their former clients.