Herbalife @ BehindMLM

A Singaporean Herbalife distributor who tortured his downline to death has been sentenced to 14 years and 11 months in prison.

A homicide case has shed light on how Herbalife is promoted in Singapore. On February 9th Lim Peng Tiong pled guilty to culpable homicide in relation to the death of his HerbaLife downline, Huang Baoying.

Following a bench trial back in February, Michael Rutherford has prevailed against defendants Brian Underwood and Pruvit. In a September 16th filed Findings of Fact, the court ruled Pruvit violated a previously reached settlement with Rutherford.

Pruvit and CEO Brian Underwood have been sued for sex discrimination and assault. Plaintiff Clarissa Jones filed suit against Pruvit and Underwood on July 14th in Jefferson Circuit Court, Kentucky.

Following a three-day bench trial held in early February, the outcome of Michael Rutherford’s Pruvit lawsuit now hinges on mediation. To that Keisha O’Neal and Pruvit appear to have already settled. Rutherford and Pruvit will enter mediation following appointment of a mediator on March 18th.

LaCore Enterprises and owner Terry LaCore have sold Pruvit to Herbalife. As per a March 12th Herbalife press-release;

Herbalife has settled fraud allegations pertaining to its “Circle of Success” events for $12 million. Herbalife has also agreed to stop misleading consumers by making changes to its corporate policies.

Two Herbalife executives based out of China were indicted back in 2019. One of the executives, who fronted HerbaLife China for over a decade, was also sued for by the SEC. Both the criminal charges and civil case pertained to Herbalife’s violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The FTC has issued at least 379 MLM companies with deceptive and/or unfair conduct notices. This was announced by the FTC on October 26th. If it slipped under your radar, you’re not alone. I learned of the FTC’s announcement via a tip sent in by a reader. At first I thought there was some funny [Continue reading…]

Defendant discovery costs in the Circle Of Success class-action are expected to top one million dollars. To date individual defendants have collectively spent $128,980 responding to discovery requests.