Nobody seems entirely sure at this point whether or not Polaris Media Group is actually going to go ahead with the name change to Polaris Global Marketing.

The Polaris Global Marketing website has been showing the Drupal maintenance splash page now for a few weeks after briefly appearing live for a few days.

Having said that reader ‘I was scammed too’ has informed us that a new website, Polaris Global Facts – Due Diligence has gone up and it refers to Polaris as Polaris Global Marketing complete with new logo. Polaris Global Facts accuses the internet of being full of “misleading information and accusations” in regards to Polaris Media Group.

Of course following this bold statement at the top of the page is then a series of “misleading information and accusations” from Polaris Global Marketing itself.

The website ‘Polaris Global Facts – Due Diligence’ runs off the domain duediligencepgm.com and was registered by Polaris Global Marketing CEO Shane Krider himself on the 27th March. The domain was last updated on the 1st of April 2010, which is presumably when the site went live.

…on April Fools day no less.

The first claim Polaris Global Marketing makes is that it is being prevented from conducting honest business by sites such as the Ripoff Report. Krider “alleges” that the founder of the Ripoff Report, Ed Magedson is “in hiding, under pursuit by the FBI with tens of millions of dollars in judgements against his company“.

Polaris Global Marketing provides no proof of these allegations nor where it sourced the information. I had a look around and found nothing more then disgruntled business whinging about the fact they were unable to directly serve Magedson with law suits.

I’m not saying whether the allegations are true or not but I do think if the FBI was after this guy then his website wouldn’t be around for too long.

Lack of proof aside, directly attacking your critics by associating them with criminal activity…

…sound familiar?

It should, it’s got all the hallmarks of Scientology’s Fair Game Policy. Shane Krider announced last year that he is a member of the church. Surely if the defense policy is good enough for the church then it’s good enough for a church member’s private business.

Following the attack on Magedson is a series of accusations that Krider has attempted to address.

1. Polaris held some type of strange ceremony at an event where people were shaving their heads

I couldn’t help but have a laugh at this one as I’m not entirely sure where Krider has lifted this “accusation” from. Try as I might I was unable to find any information on the internet linking Polaris Media Group or Polaris Global Marketing with a strange event involving shaving heads.

It was well known that the hair shaving was part of the charity event “The World’s Greatest Shave”. This was first mentioned by BehindMLM reader Jane back on February 27th, 2010 along with a link to a media article.

If anything, the claim that the shaving event was linked to reports about a Polaris Global Marketing “strange ceremony” seems to be nothing more then a reason to mention the charity event on the website.

2. Polaris changed names to avoid obligations and regulators

I’m assuming this is in reference to Polaris Media Group changing its name to Polaris Global Marketing, and not the name change from Liberty League International to Polaris Media Group.

Krider asserts that the reason for the name change was because

the new name identifies the company’s new focus into Media Production and Educational courses for Entrepreneurs.

Now as far as I know, whether it be Liberty League or Polaris Media Group, the company has always provided what it calls “educational courses for Entrepreneurs”. As far as I know the only change is the focus into “media production”.

So what… is Krider expecting anyone to believe that the name change from Polaris MEDIA Group to Polaris Global Marketing is someone a reflection of the company’s new focus into media production?!

I’m not saying the name change has anything to do with regulators but I find it hard to believe removing ‘media‘ from your company’s name somehow better conveys your new direction in media production.

3. Polaris hastily came together as a result of regulator pressure

Again I’m assuming this is referring to the name change to Polaris Media Group and not Polaris Global Marketing.

Krider challenges this viewpoint by stating

Polaris was planned and privately funded over a year in advance of its opening. Media was in production for 12 months prior to the company’s launch.

Over 50 original video featurettes and clips were available on launch date or had been published on the web prior to the launch event.

Polaris Media Group officially launched on September 9th, 2009. If it was in development for 12 months prior to it’s launch why the hell did it launch with a back office in shambles and half the product line missing?!

Why would you even bother to announce the new company until these issues had been resolved?!

It couldn’t have been because the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading was breathing down your neck could it?

As for “50 original video featurettes and clips” about Polaris Media Group being published prior to and on the launch date, sorry what?

At best I remember four or five clips being promoted heavily on Youtube with the drums and big grey text flashing by set in space and that was about it. Did I miss something or was there a whole bunch of other clips released I never saw?

4. The Polaris home income opportunity is a pyramid and a scam

This accusation is hugely debatable. Recently Polaris Media Group held it’s top of the line $16,000 conference in Macau China. Attendance has been estimated at around 150-170.

Out of those 150-170 I’d love to know the numbers of true retail customers, ie. those with no involvement in the business opportunity of Polaris.

Going even broader I’d love to know the percentage of current customers (those that have made a product purchase in the last 3 months that wasn’t the ‘Know For Yourself’ $5 dvd ), who are genuine retail customers.

Given the only repeat consumables Polaris sell are it’s conferences and only 150-170 rocked up to their deluxe event, either distributors numbers have dwindled considerably or the vast majority of attendees were Polaris distributors.

Why is this point important?

I’ve always maintained that the problem with Polaris’ business plan is that the money isn’t in it’s pseudo retail products but rather in recruiting others to the business opportunity. They then recruit others, who recruit others and so and so forth. Sound pyramid’esque enough?

If you just rely on the measly commissions of the retail products you’re simply not going to get anywhere within the company and you can forget about any “six figure income”.

I’ve yet to see this point challenged in an official or unofficial capacity by Polaris Media Group itself or any of its current or ex distributors.

5. Polaris is party to numerous legal and regulator actions

I don’t know about numerous but a public notice put out by the NSW DoFT while the company was still trading as Liberty League is pretty hard to ignore.

6. Polaris is a front for The Church of Scientology

Krider asserts that

POLARIS remains neutral with regards to the political and religious views of its members and leadership.

This seems to fly in the face of revelations that then Polaris EMC members were publicly encouraging Polaris distributors to join them in attending Scientology courses.

Polaris Ex-EMC member Elena Fraga quit the company shortly after the Scientology link was made public. Among other things, Fraga later wrote

One fact that I can share here is that I was asked by the leadership of Polaris to take courses at the Hubbard School of Administration. I was told that they would help me on my leadership role in the company.

I was told that I needed to improved my Communication Skills and I needed that course I paid it as requested but I did not go. I cancelled at the last minute.

I did not know, at that time, that the Hubbard School of Administration is actually part of the Scientology Church.

I completely stand by what I originally wrote in response to Fraga’s alarming revelations;

What is clear here is that the direction Polaris leadership are taking is to get their EMC members along to Scientology courses, without any disclosure about the fact the course is run by Scientologists.

When asked to go into more detail, specifically about the change over to Polaris Media Group she cites confidentiality agreements that allegedly all EMC members were required to sign. This is a far cry from the apparent transparency in which the company name change occurred that Krider alleges in points 4 and 2.

The list of accusations finishes with a quote from Gregory Strom, stating that

Polaris video and written course products have consistently avoided any particular political or religious belief system as a matter of company policy, and will continue to do so in the future.

Strom is credited as being an “author and producer” of the “Polaris product line“. I’m unsure if this means he’s the sole author and producer although I assume not.

Strom is credited himself on his website as being a”multi award winning editor and director”. Absolutely no mention is made of Polaris Media Group or anything to do with personal development.

Regardless one needs only to look at the fact that Shane Krider himself is a Scientologist. Forget about any opinions you might have of Scientology itself, Polaris Media Group sell, by their own admission, personal development products.

Does it make any sense that if the beliefs and educational matter found in Polaris Media Group’s products didn’t align with Krider’s own personal beliefs which are tied to his religion, that he would approve them?

Think about that for a second.

We’re talking the equivalent of a Christian going and teaching Muslim beliefs at a Muslim school or vice versa… Of course that’s only a valid metaphor if the values found in Polaris’ products do not align with the personal development tenants, beliefs and values found in Scientology.

If they do, well then it’s a bit of a stretch to claim that Polaris’ “products have consistently avoided any particular political or religious belief system“.

 

As usual, the information put forth by Krider and Polaris Global Marketing is easily refuted and seems to contradict itself on multiple occasions.

I do agree with Krider however that there certainly is a lot of misleading information and accusations on the internet about Polaris Media Group…

…good thing that there are those doing something about it.