Eaconomy and owner Hassan Mahmoud have been sued for unpaid commissions.

Plaintiff Ali Saleh, a resident of New Jersey, alleges he is owed $150,000.

Saleh cites himself as a successful entrepreneur” whose “association with a company significantly boosts the company’s sales, recruitment, and profitability.”

Currently, Saleh is promoting Jimmy Bennet’s Manifest securities fraud scheme.

Saleh claims he joined Eaconomy back in November 2021. It wasn’t until June 2022 that he signed a secret backroom deal contract though (referenced as an ICA).

If I’m understanding correctly, Saleh’s backroom deal saw him earn 65% of his entire binary team.

The key provision of the ICA is contained in Paragraph 10 of the ICA. In pertinent part, it states that “65% of volume of any rank qualifies [Plaintiff] for rank in a 1 leg build.”

In other words, Plaintiff would earn 65 percent of the revenue generated by the downline participants in his “leg.”

The contractual provision in the ICA requiring only 65% of volume in a one-leg deal was bargained for and desired by Plaintiff.

This puts him at a significant financial advantage over regular Eaconomy distributors.

Saleh states his time at Eaconomy was “uneventful” until September 2022,

when Candace Ross—a senior executive at Eaconomy, intermittent CEO, and former spouse of Mahmoud—and Michael Talento—also a senior executive of Eaconomy—began communicating with Plaintiff about Mahmoud.

Saleh claims Ross and Talento told him Mahmoud was “embezzling money from Eaconomy”.

After Eaconomy relaunched in 2021, Mahmoud improperly funneled money from ghost affiliate accounts to himself, and/or transferred money from Eaconomy bank accounts to his family members.

As part of this discussion, Saleh purportedly told Ross and Talento that “if the allegations were true, Eaconomy would be better off without Mahmoud involved with the company. ”

Fast forward to December 2022;

Mahmoud texted Plaintiff that Mahmoud was stepping down as CEO from the company because he was terminally ill.

After Mahmoud’s departure from Eaconomy in December 2022, Ross told Plaintiff that Mahmoud lied about being terminally ill.

Ross stated that Mahmoud had contracted with two individuals from whom he received loans in the amounts of $100,000 and $250,000 in exchange for offering a percentage ownership of Eaconomy.

From approximately December 2022 to February 2023, Ross served as interim CEO of Eaconomy

Ross indicated that Mahmoud had stepped away from Eaconomy to avoid fallout from these contracts.

What makes this next part particularly interesting is Hassan Mahmoud and Candace Ross were, evidently up until recently (?), married.

Ross’s time as interim CEO was short and turbulent. Ross began disseminating the allegations about Mahmoud to lower-level distributors and sharing details of affiliate contract deals—such as Plaintiff’s ICA providing for a 65 percent volume one leg deal—to other affiliates and distributors, in breach of contractual confidentiality clauses.

Ross’s actions resulted in calls for Mahmoud’s return.

Apparently Eaconomy’s distributors didn’t like details of their secret backroom deals being shared.

Having miraculously recovered from his terminal illness, Hassan “returned to Eaconomy as CEO in or around early March, 2023.”

On May 2nd, 2023, Saleh claims he “received an urgent email from Eaconomy.”

The email stated that Eaconomy’s legal team has asserted grounds for Plaintiff’s immediate termination, but that instead of proceeding with the termination, Eaconomy would offer Plaintiff two options.

Later that same day, Mahmoud told Saleh over Zoom that he could either resign or have his backroom deal terminated (making him a regular Eaconomy distributor).

Saleh claims both options violated his backroom deal and were “substantially less favorable that [sic] the bargain the parties struct in the ICA.”

Mahmoud purportedly gave Saleh 48 hours to make a decision, after which he learned he also hadn’t been paid a commission on April 28th.

In a subsequent May 4th Zoom webinar, Saleh asserts the reason Mahmoud terminated his backroom deal was because Eaconomy couldn’t “afford to bring Ardon on as an Eaconomy affiliate without terminating Plaintiff’s ICA.”

Ardon refers to Jose Ardon, former Executive Vice President of Be.

Both Saleh and Ardon were involved in the Be pyramid scheme before signing up with Eaconomy.

On the May 4th Zoom webinar, Saleh also confronted Mahmoud about his missing April commision.

Also on May 4, 2023, Plaintiff texted Mahmoud that he had not received the $18,750 that was due on April 28, 2023.

On May 5, 2023, Mahmoud responded that Plaintiff would be paid on May 8, 2023.

But when further questioned about the additional $18,750 due to Plaintiff on May 5, 2023, Mahmoud stated that he was “still deciding” whether he would pay Plaintiff.

Saleh claims it is at this point he realized Mahmoud had no intention of paying him. Saleh resigned his Eaconomy distributor position.

After his resignation, Saleh claims Eaconomy sent him a cease and desist on May 11th.

(Eaconomy) asserted that Plaintiff was in violation of several provisions of the Browsewrap, including a non-solicitation and non-compete clause, a confidential information and proprietary business secrets clause, and a non-disparagement clause.

“Browsewrap” refers to the regular Eaconomy distributor agreement.

Saleh next claims he was contacted by George Lee, his former Eaconomy downline who’s now also in Manifest.

George stated that he heard Plaintiff was terminated from Eaconomy due to inappropriate behavior with female distributors and affiliates.

Saleh asserts he confirmed with at least one other person that Eaconomy was telling people he “was terminated due to inappropriate behavior with female distributors and affiliates.”

Saleh maintains that

any such statements are false, defamatory and allege unlawful conduct by Plaintiff.

As of May 30th, Saleh claims he is owed “at least $187,500”.

Across six causes of action, Saleh’s Complaint accuses Eaconomy of breach of contract and defamation.

Saleh confirmed service on Eaconomy on June 7th. Eaconomy and Mahmoud failed to respond to Saleh’s Complaint, prompting him to file for an Entry of Default on June 27th.

The court clerk recorded Entry of Default against Eaconomy on July 13th.

Saleh confirmed service against Hassan Mahmoud on August 8th.

Following an agreement between the parties, the Entry of Default was set aside and Eaconomy and Mahmoud were given until August 14th to file an answer.

On August 14th and 15th Mahmoud and Eaconomy respectively filed their answers, along with CounterClaims against Saleh.

Not surprisingly, the answers deny accusations in Saleh’s Complaint. In their CounterClaims against Saleh, Mahmoud and Eaconomy claim

Saleh has repeatedly and consistently violated various provisions of the contracts he entered into with Eaconomy, by:

(1) disclosing Eaconomy’s confidential information and trade secrets to competitors and other Eaconomy affiliates;

(2) founding and operating a business that directly competes with Eaconomy;

(3) using Eaconomy’s confidential information and trade secrets to solicit Eaconomy’s affiliates and clients; and

(4) defaming Counter-Claimant to third parties.

Mahmoud and Eaconomy point out that

Saleh recently settled a case with a remarkably similar fact pattern with his other previous employer. See, Epic Trading Co. v. Saleh Carver Enterprises, et al.

Epic Trading is a forex themed suspected pyramid scheme that collapsed last year.

In that case, Saleh’s former employer alleged that, after terminating his relationship with his employer, Saleh stole proprietary information from the company that Saleh subsequently used to compete against the employer in an attempt to solicit the company’s employees and customers.

The former employer also alleged that Saleh engaged in a defamatory campaign against the company.

It is evident that this type of misconduct is Saleh’s modus operandi.

For reference, Epic Trading voluntarily dismissed its filed March 2021 case against Saleh in December that same year.

Eaconomy and Mahmoud go on to allege

Saleh stole Eaconomy’s proprietary information and has been using it to solicit Eaconomy’s affiliates to work for Saleh’s competing business.

In addition … Saleh has engaged in a defamatory campaign against Eaconomy and its CEO, Mahmoud, which began months before Saleh ultimately resigned from Eaconomy.

There’s also an interesting “Uno reverse card” play on Saleh’s alleged “inappropriate behavior with female distributors” claims.

On May 4, 2023, during an in-person meeting in Dubai, Saleh admitted to Mahmoud, and other Eaconomy executives, that he told Eaconomy affiliates and third parties that:

(1) Mahmoud had sexually harassed Eaconomy’s female affiliates; and

(2) Mahmoud embezzled Eaconomy’s funds.

Saleh conceded that these statements were false and that he should not have made these statements.

Saleh was apologetic and admitted that he knew that all of the accusations were lies.

In addition, Saleh stated that any other company would have terminated him for this misconduct.

As the meeting concluded, Mahmoud told Saleh that he needed time to consider his relationship with Saleh and that he would follow up with Saleh.

Less than an hour after the May 4 meeting concluded, Saleh sent text communications to Mahmoud stating that Saleh had been “holding so much darkness and guilt in [his] heart.”

Saleh was referring to the guilt he felt for defaming Defendant and attempting to recruit Affiliates to leave Eaconomy for a competing business.

Less than 48 hours later, Saleh resigned from Eaconomy.

Eaconomy’s and Mahmoud’s Counterclaims are supported by SMS and sworn statement exhibits.

Saleh shared the terms of the ICA with his wife for her to share that information with Affiliates in hopes of recruiting them to his competing company and destroying Eaconomy.

Saleh’s wife openly broadcasted on her public Instagram that she would share the details of the “deals in place in the previous company we were in.”

Because of Saleh’s misappropriation and use of Eaconomy’s Confidential Information, several Affiliates have terminated their relationships with Eaconomy.

Eaconomy’s and Mahmoud’s Counterclaim accuses Saleh of defamation.

I’ve added Saleh’s Eaconomy lawsuit to BehindMLM’s case calendar. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to track the case.

 

Update 7th September 2023 – Ali Saleh has let us know in the comments below that, due to his “terms of service” ending, he is no longer involved in Manifest.

 

Update 4th January 2023 – Seems Saleh is having trouble paying his lawyer. This is from a January 3rd filing;

The Plaintiff has failed to pay for legal services … as agreed when the representations began.

Over the past several months, the client was advised that payment needed to be made to avoid an interruption in services.

The filing is Saleh’s lawyer requesting permission to withdraw from the case.

There’s a certain irony in suing an MLM company for unpaid commissions and then not paying your lawyer.

 

Update 5th March 2024 – Ali Saleh has failed to pay the attorney representing him in his Eaconomy case.

Saleh has also ghosted his attorney and the Nevada court he filed suit in, leaving the future of his case uncertain.

 

Update 20th July 2024 – This article originally linked to a BusinessForHome article citing Jose Ardon as the newly appointed President of Be.

Sometime in the last week this article has been deleted from BusinessForHome without explanation. A screenshot of the article remains but the link to the previously accessible article has been disabled.