VOZ Travel added to FTC’s Success By Health fraud case
The FTC has added VOZ Travel to the list of defendants in its Success By Health fraud lawsuit.
VOZ Travel was added as per a second amended complaint, filed on September 23rd.
In the complaint, the FTC alleges VOZ Travel was launched by defendants Jay Noland, Lina Noland, Scott Harris and Thomas Sacca.
In October 2019, Defendants announced their “VOZ Travel” program. Defendants charged consumers $1,000-$2,795 to become VOZ Travel members.
In exchange, consumers received the right to sell discounted travel through a never launched booking platform and to earn rewards based on their ability to recruit others willing to pay the steep membership fee.
The FTC alleges VOZ Travel was announced following a decline in Success By Health recruitment throughout 2019.
Jay Noland described VOZ as a “travel product of Success By Health owned by Success By Media.”
Defendants promoted the opportunity to earn large monetary rewards in VOZ, through the six-tier commission structure, by recruiting large teams.
In one VOZ Travel training video cited by the FTC, Thomas Sacca touted potential annual earnings of over $1.5 million.
Sacca stated: “There will be VOZ Travel [members] making over $1.53 [million] per year.”
After adding that he could not “guarantee you income in any way, shape, form, or fashion,” Sacca proceeded to “guarantee you if you go to work, you’re gonna change your life.”
Despite charging $1000 and $2495 respectively for for affiliate “movement” and “founders” packs, VOZ Travel never launched.
There were no physical VOZ “packs,” and consumers who bought “packs” never received any actual product or service.
Instead, they earned the right to receive rewards by recruiting additional consumers to spend $1,000 or more on membership packs.
On December 18th, 2019, Jay Noland announced VOZ Travel’s prelaunch campaign had ended.
On December 20th Noland advised affiliates VOZ Travel would not launch that month.
The launch delay was referred to as a “strategic timing release announcement”.
Noland claimed he had just signed a “multibillion dollar inked deal,” which was the “biggest travel deal ever.”
Noland claimed that the deal would “put us in a position to where we literally have the most unfair advantage in all of travel.”
A new launch date between January 10th to 15th was circulated.
Contrary to Noland’s claim, the FTC’s investigation would later reveal there was in fact no “multibillion dollar deal”.
After the launch delay announcement, VOZ Travel affiliate membership pricing was jacked up to $1295 and $2795.
On January 6th, VOZ Travel announced it had terminated its contract with its booking-platform vendor.
VOZ Travel’s launch date was thus suspended indefinitely.
Rather than inform its affiliates of the situation though, the Success By Health defendants
simply changed their messaging. On a January 8 conference call with VOZ members, Noland explained that VOZ was not just a “discount wholesale travel program,” but instead was about “freedom,” “experiences,” and “memories.”
Despite VOZ Travel now having nothing to do with travel, recruitment continued.
Defendants continued to push consumers to pay over $1,000 to enroll as VOZ Travel members and to recruit others to do the same.
The FTC was granted a TRO against Success By Health and the individual defendants on January 13th.
As of the Court’s January 13, 2020 TRO, Defendants had not retained a new vendor to build the VOZ booking platform.
The FTC alleges Noland and his co-defendants sold “approximately $1 million” in VOZ Travel affiliate memberships.
The FTC’s case against Success By Health continues…