Brian Underwood is attempting to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Michael Rutherford against Pruvit.

In a Motion to Intervene filed on June 14th, Underwood claims he and Rutherford had “a longstanding agreement and de facto partnership”.

Rutherford’s Pruvit lawsuit was filed on May 17th.

In a nutshell, Rutherford claims Pruvit, under Underwood’s direction, wrongfully cut him off from his “Ketones Rule” Pruvit Master Distributor earnings.

Rutherford alleges Underwood took action because Pruvit stopped paying its executives, in anticipation of a planned public filing later this year.

Underwood’s motion provides additional context to the dispute.

For starters, Underwood claims Rutherford cut him off in May 2022.

Underwood continued to receive his half of the commissions until May 2022.

That is because—despite their agreement—Rutherford stopped causing half of the residual commissions to be paid to Underwood and refused to make further payments, allegedly because of a judgment entered against Rutherford as part of his divorce.

Underwood claims he notified Pruvit of the “commission dispute”, leading to Pruvit cutting Rutherford out.

Pruvit stopped paying the commissions to Ketones Rules until the parties resolve the dispute.

Underwood sees Rutherford’s lawsuit against Pruvit as an attempt to “circumvent” this decision.

Given that Ketones Rule tried to circumvent that requirement by filing this lawsuit against Pruvit to try restart commission payments while still refusing to pay Underwood, Underwood has no other choice but to file this motion to protect his interest in the commissions.

As I noted in BehindMLM’s coverage, Rutherford and Underwood go way back. This is acknowledged in Underwood’s motion;

Underwood has invested in and supported Rutherford in the multilevel marketing space for over a decade. Their work together in past ventures included iZigg and Rippln.

As part of their work together, Underwood invested in Rutherford, including by paying some of his expenses, rent, and fronting his commissions.

In July or August 2015, Rutherford proposed that their work together include Pruvit.

In so doing, Rutherford agreed to pay Underwood half of the monthly residual commissions earned from Pruvit.

In exchange (among other things), Underwood would use his credibility and influence to help Rutherford and cause some Pruvit “Promoters” and mutual contacts (in the absence of conflicts) to be put into a common “downline” to be headed by Rutherford.

Underwood claims two of the promoters he manipulated into Rutherford’s Pruvit downline, have “generated a total of over $110 million of revenue” to date.

While asserting his Ketones Rule commissions had “dramatically decreased recently”, Rutherford nonetheless claims he was still earning “approximately $60,000 to $80,000” a month.

If Underwood is granted permission to intervene, he’ll be suing Rutherford as a Third-party Plaintiff. That currently proposed Complaint names Ketones Rule and Rutherford as Defendants.

Allegations in the Complaint mirror those raised in Underwood’s Motion to Intervene.

Underwood hopes to sue Rutherford for breach of contract, b reach of de facto partnership agreement and money had & received.

Underwood respectfully prays for this Court to:

  • Enter judgement against Rutherford and Ketones Rule;
  • Award Underwood his benefit-of-the-bargain damages, court costs, attorneys’ fees, and pre- and post-judgment interest;
  • Declare that Underwood is entitled to half of all the future monthly residual commissions paid by Pruvit to Rutherford and Ketones Rule; and
  • Award Underwood all such other and further relief that law and equity require.

At time of publication, a decision on Underwood’s motion remains pending.

Meanwhile Rutherford and Pruvit have reached an agreement regarding Ketones Rules’ commissions.

An “agreed order” attached to a filed June 20th notice advises;

The Parties, having considered Plaintiff Ketones Rule’s Emergency Motion For Temporary Restraining Order and after discussion on June 16, 2023, agree as follows:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant Pruvit Ventures, Inc. will release 50% of the escrowed Ketones Rule commissions to Ketones Rule.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Pruvit Ventures, Inc. will pay Ketones Rule 50% of the commissions earned by Ketones Rule through the ruling by the Court on Plaintiff’s Preliminary Injunction.

If granted, this would see Ketones Rule’s return to the 50% status quo, before Rutherford allegedly cut off Underwood in May 2022.

That’s a win for Brian Underwood, not so much for Rutherford (assuming he’s intent on maintaining a 100% share in Ketones Rules’ commissions).

There’s no timeline for the court to address Underwood’s motion or Rutherford’s and Pruvit’s joint agreed order. I’ll continue to check the docket for updates.

 

Update 4th July 2023 – The court signed off on the proposed “agreed order” on June 21st.

Looking forward, a Management Conference has been scheduled for August 21st.

 

Update 4th August 2023 – Rutherford, Underwood and Pruvit have reached an undisclosed settlement.