dubli-logoI’ve been called a lot of things over the years. The name “Oz”, within the context of BehindMLM, has been dragged through all sorts of mud and associated with any number of MLM companies (“you must be working for a competitor!”), government agencies, the media and even the Illuminati (I’m not kidding).

One person I’ve never been directly associated with though is Troy Dooly. At least not until now.

And thus the tone of a cease and desist Dubli had their lawyers send Troy Dooly a week ago is set.

The content in question is BehindMLM’s coverage and opinion of information Dooly posted to MLM Helpdesk on May 11th.

In a cease and desist dated May 21st, Richard Sybert of Gorden & Reese (not that Reese), wrote:

This law firm represents Dubli and had been engaged to take action against you for your false and defamatory conduct through your website mlmhelpdesk.com as well as in conjunction with or through (or as) “Oz” on the website behindmlm.com.

Putting aside the obvious, what exactly did Dubli object to then?

Dubli does have leader contracts but these go into effect only after the Business Associate has performed, never before.

The premise for your entire article, that Dubli pays for recruitment is damaging and flatly wrong. Dubli has never paid for recruitment.

With all due respect Mr. Sybert, that is an absolute load of horseshit.

BehindMLM reviewed Dubli’s current ecommerce incarnation in September 2014. Analysis of Dubli’s compensation plan found affiliates paying up to $12,000 to join the company, which was commissionable (up to 27.5%, depending on how much an affiliate paid in fees when they signed up).

This false charge is potentially highly damaging to Dubli within the network marketing industry and Dubli’s own ranks of Business Associates.

But you’re going to insist Dubli never paid recruitment commissions!? What a load of crap.

That Dubli paying recruitment commissions is damaging is self-evident and beyond my control. You want an answer? Ask Dubli corporate.

That US regulators might investigate upon learning affiliates are paying $12,000 and are/were getting compensated to recruit others who paid the same, is not my concern.

Sybert then took objection to my pointing out that Dubli is in decline:

There is nothing “disastrous” about the Dubli branding.

In fact, Dubli Network is not changing only the Dubli, Inc. corporate name.

Now this is where the semantic games begin, of which there are many.

The headline I ran with was “Dubli drops disastrous branding”. In light of Sybert’s objection, I’ll just let that sit there.

Further, Dubli has been anything but dormant since it elected to close its auctions.

Had you bothered to review Dubli’s actual financial statements, you would have seen that Dubli has continued its shopping mall business and Dubli Network all along.

I don’t dispute that, but cut the crap son.

After Dubli shut their auctions down they disappeared. I myself abandoned my planned series of articles covering Dubli’s auctions, as I felt there just wasn’t enough public interest to warrant my time.

Whatever was still operating on paper was negligible, with the company only entering the public eye last year – when they released the “pay up to $12,000 to sign up and get paid to recruit” business model.

This is entirely reflected in Alexa’s tracking off traffic to the Dubli Network website. Or hell, just ask anyone in or following the MLM the industry what their awareness was of Dubli post penny auctions.

Further, the Dubli auction was never a “penny auction” but rather a reverse auction.

Right. Because y’know, there’s no such thing as a “reverse penny auction”.

The existence of such a thing would pose such a revolutionary concept such to render the very fabric of the MLM industry we know today asunder.

My client operates Dubli Network and has a healthy shopping mall business. Calling the company a “recruitment-driven orgy” is false and slanderous.

Have you checked Dubli’s financial statements lately?

I mean really, if push came to shove and Dubli were required to publicly disclose how much of their 2014-2015 revenue was derived from affiliate fees versus that of non-affiliate (retail) shopping memberships – do you want to take a guess how that’d play out?

As for a healthy shopping mall business, what’s the renew rate on non-affiliate shopping memberships?

Oh, right. Nothing to see here, moving on…

There was never “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of recruitment by Dubli.

So uh, Dubli didn’t pay Tony Rush $163,000 within 60 days of him joining the company?

How much of that $163,000 comprised of affiliate membership fees, paid by affiliates recruited into Rush’s Dubli downline?

Actually why don’t I just tell you, because we all saw the video Rush rushed to delete shortly after posting it.

He has made $153,000 in less than 60 days. His commissions are for the far majority, if not all, recruitment based.

And Tony Rush’s recruitment earnings are just one example.

But uh yeah, “healthy shopping mall” with no recruitment commissions being paid out. Right.

Next up we’ve got more semantics, with Sybert arguing that Dubli never changed their compensation plan.

Dubli has not changed its unilateral plan at all, which remains in place.

In fact, Dubli has added to it with the Dubli binary plan, which has not “tanked” at all – the company’s Business Associates like the binary plan and are making money from both compensation plans together.

First up, MLM 101: You have one compensation plan. And newsflash: It changed.

The words “unilateral plan” have never appeared on BehindMLM, because it’s marketing jargon some hack at Dubli invented.

Dubli might still have a unilevel compensation structure in place, but it’s not the $12,000 affiliate fee commissions they were offering when BehindMLM reviewed the opportunity.

As for Business Associates liking the plan, here’s what happened after it was implemented:

dubli-network-alexa-traffic-ominto-may-2015

And do I really need to mention the general sense of disillusionment the Dubli affiliate-base went through when the changes were implemented?

Be sure to read the comments from #142 onwards in our Dubli review.

Not to mention all the drama between Dubli’s affiliate marketing coops as they attempted to hastily salvage what was left (read: supplement their slashed recruitment commissions with co-op training fees).

Now we’re almost done, but I’ve saved you the best for last:

The MLM Cashback model has been hugely successful.

Dubli’s compensation plan has passed regulatory review.

If there’s one thing you don’t do in MLM, it’s assert (via insinuation or otherwise) that regulators have approved your compensation plan.

Why?

Because no US regulator approves business models or compensation plans, MLM or otherwise.

But, there we have it in writing. Dubli’s lawyer asserting that Dubli’s compensation plan has passed US regulatory inspection.

Most of the rest of Sybert’s letter pertains to Troy Dooly’s comments I quoted in the BehindMLM article. To that if you’re reading this Troy and wish anything quoted to be amended, an email will sort that out.

Otherwise I trust I’ve adequately responded to Dubli’s lawyer’s concerns.

Oh and I will clarify that I had no idea Troy had been sent the cease and desist until today, when he published Sybert’s letter on MLM Helpdesk.

On behalf of Dubli, we demand that you immediately take down these articles.

We demand also that you issue an immediate retraction of each of the defamatory and false statements set out above.

Fat chance chief. Nobody is going to apologize for reporting the facts.