TVI Express declared pyramid scheme in Australia
I haven’t had the time yet to explore the TVI Express business opportunity but it seems that if the Australian Competitive and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have their way I won’t get a chance to.
Today a ruling by the Federal Court of Australia effectively banned TVI Express from being promoted in Australia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained orders in the Federal Court in Sydney stopping Laulhati “Teddi” Jutsen, Tina Brownlee and David Scanlon from promoting the scheme, accepting payments from new “members” or paying other participants.
Not only that but the ACCC seem are going one step further and requesting injunctions to stop Jutsen, Brownlee and Scanlon from engaging in any similar business conduct in the future.
Another one bites the dust?
Tvi Express have responded to the federal court ruling, stating ‘the ACCC claims will be “strenuously defended”‘. It is unclear whether by ‘defended’ TVI Express mean completely changing their pyramid scheme business model or not…
…with the ACCC and Australian Federal Court on their backs this might be the only option if TVI Express wish to trade once again in Australia.
Between the launch of LiveSmart 360, rumors of Brent Payne’s new personal development company launching and MLM companies being declared pyramid schemes in Australia, it seems we’re set for an exciting week of MLM news!
Thanks, Oz, for the link to what we figured all along.
Oh, by the way, Brent Payne has launched
http://WeAreAvant.com .
I’m going to need to clone myself soon to keep up. Between writing for OSB, BehindMLM and working there just isn’t enough hours in the day!
Is it just me or do the products for Avant look just like Polaris Global clones (dvd’s, workbooks etc)? I guess Payne is sticking with what he knows.
Don’t have time to look at the comp plan just yet but wonder if it’s similar to Polaris’?
It does look like he is re-hashing what worked for him in the past.
Just skimmed through the comp plan video on that link..
Seems to be like LLI – with some polaris like attributes- like a ‘bonus pool’ for high achievers- paid by corporate office.
ELEVATE: workbook, cd’s, dvd – Retail $1595, Profit to distributor $1000
TRANSFORM: 3 day seminar- Retail $9495, Profit to distributor- $5000
TRANSCEND: 4 day Seminar- Retail $16495, profit to distributor $10000.
I’m guessing these are US figures.
blah blah blah- same ol shit…
pass up profit to become qual’d advisor or purchase product for yourself…
yuck!! makes me ill thinking about it!!
hope no-one falls for this latest scam!
hey Oz – do u know if TVI is same as Pyxism?
I know a few ex-LLI’ers that were pushing TVI but their websites now promote Pysism.
this is their main corporate site
http://pyxism.com/
U didnt have to be a genius to see from a mile away that TVI was so much like a typical pyramid- and is designed to manipulate trusting ppl and take innocent ppl for a ride.
I haven’t officially looked into the TVI express opportunity yet so I’m not sure.
I did a quick google search and it appears the two companies are rivals. Kind of like how Liberty League/Polaris Global and Lifepath were/are in the personal development area.
First back in May the NSW office of Fair Trading concluded their investigation into Liberty League and stated they’d received legal advice that LLI’s business model was indeed a pyramid scheme.’
Your comments last year and yet STILL no action taken by the DFE to close it down ( look what happened to TVI) – because the so called advice didn’t exist and the ‘letter’ that you exhibited was a fake. The business never was a pyramid scheme ; ha ha ha ; you total misguided fools; live presentations happened and guess what – NOTHING HAPPENED- the company was not stopped and no injunctions were obtained (unlike TVI) . Get it ? you are sad people
Liberty League ran for cover and changed their name and business structure.
Why do you think this was?
It is about time – I wondered how it lasted as long as it did and have been waiting for this!
TVI and Pyxism are worlds apart. TVI had no product, no company cash flow and no real office or owners. Pyxism is owned by Lloyd Wilson, who is real, passionate and contactable. He has heart, passion and integrity.
Pyxism is regulated by the Californian AG’s office, and have real products and cash flows.
I could never understand why people would choose TVI with a bottom loading splitting matrix over a company with integrity, top loading and you cycle 5 times as many times for the same effort with a company that pays and has integrity!
Anyway, if you are in TVI and want to stay in the travel business happy to get you across to my team and I will look after you.
Cheers,
Simon
Gday Simon
What do you mean regulated? Are you suggesting the AG’s office regulate companies specifically?
All companies that are incorporated in California come under the scrutiny and regulation of the AG, so yes. And also Pyxism had to submit their products to the relevant authorities to get their travel license their and in other jurisdictions.
If you look at the Pyxism website you will see the relevant travel licenses at the bottom of the page.
Hmmm, Pyxism. There’s another one you might want to look at, Oz.
At a quick glance, it seems the way to get ahead is to enroll more people, a la a pyramid scheme. Not to mention that when you type Pyxism into Google, some of what you see next is pyxism scam and pyxism fraud.
The website seems to have all the ingredients of one of these MLM schemes, including not much text (that explains very little), and a video with a bunch of people with their hands in the air, etc.
I’d be happy to be proven wrong, though.
interesting that you haven’t denied the letter was a fake! i understand that someone is doing a Freedom of information claim on that letter; cant wait to see the result. might even find out who you really are.
you see all these people you criticize and lie about give out their real names and address and admit who owns their websites; something you wont do!
Scientology demanded the name Polaris was to be the new name?
Uh… why would I bother even addressing the claim the NSW DoFT letter was a fake? I received the letter as a result of personal communications between myself and the NSW DoFT. I have the unmodified copy (for the protection of the person who sent it to me) on file, complete with their name and the query number.
General consensus seems to be that it was a letter that should have not been sent out. NSW DoFT made their official announcement 2 days later but this was much more diplomatic then the letter I received.
What’s amusing is you can read the entire ordeal chornologically as it happened with input from multiple people, this spanned what? At least a month or so from memory. Yes I went to massive lengths to create a fake letter from DoFT about Liberty League and then just co-incidentally they put out a press release 2 days later.
Why would I stake my credibility as a blogger on something that can so easily be refuted? DoFT can easily state whether it’s a fake or not, but just because they won’t disclose the details of private communications between myself (an Australian citizen) and a government department doesn’t automatically equate to the letter being fake.
I’m assuming you mean a freedom of information request. I’m not a lawyer but I doubt that will mean anything when a private individual is concerned. As far as I know even if you’re Xenu himself you can’t just call up a government department and demand they release personal information about claims under the freedom of information act.
Given that the relevant information contained in the document has already been published, the only thing left to publish would be my personal details and that of the employee who sent the document. Hardly relevant under the freedom of information act.
Oh and let’s not forget it’s a fake… I won’t even bother addressing how silly it is to claim a document is a fake and then in the same breath that someone has made a ‘freedom of information claim’ on said fake document.
Is that why there’s so much information about Susan Shaw and her Polaris Global business on the internet?
Seriously what do you think is going to happen if you get my name? It’s not going to mean anything to you… a google search turns up nothing. I know your kinda counting on me being a convicted criminal or working for the opposition so I guess I can sympathise a little.
I’ve maintained and always maintain that I’m just a guy with a keyboard. I’m not selling you anything and if you need to contact me there’s a method readily available. Public scrutiny of anything published on here (my own work or someone elses comments) is also freely available.
Anything else is irrelevant.
Scams, lying and hoaxes don’t last long on the internet. There’s a reason I’m still around after nearly a year of blogging about Polaris, and it’s got nothing to do with my name.
Yes sure you do; you write your blog for money; there is nothing positive in what you write.
MLM’s have been around for ever and will continue and it is blogs like this tht make me cheer for Senator Conroy. It is a vicsious blog; bit like the newspapers of old. If you allowed comments like what is on your blog in newspapers you would be sued up hill and down dale for defamtion. That is why your name is hidden and for no other reason. It is also why you went to Taiwan (if in fact you have really left – I have it on good authority that you haven’t).
Your blog also attracts the lowest of the low and anyone who comes to defend MLM and direct marketing in any way is personally abused or told they are ‘behaving like a scientologist’! What a farce.
But as I said my home business is now using your blog for good. People see the crap and lies and visciouness of the blogs – eg the shave for Leukemaia event in Macau: the comments were just disgusting – and realize how pathtic your supporters are.
Finally your comments abvove are a true reflection of how really awful you are. I give you examples of bs – re Glanville and you come to the support of a guy who claimed he did something wrong and yet there was no evidence provided. What exactly did Glanville do? He did nohting except be in a business called Liberty League; it ran its particular comp plan for 8 years and NOT once in all that time did any court find it was a pyramid scheme; it wasnt: just like ACN wasnt.
You dont understand what a pyramid scheme is; TVI was always one: no products
The reason the DFt letter was a fake was because there was no legal opinion provided in May that Liberty League was a pyramid scheme; if there had been the DFT would have been in court by June! But they weren’t! Your friend made it all up; he had another agenda.
Not sure what yours is: but helping people is not what youdo; you are like a communist – you think people need to be told what to do; they are’t allwoed to make up their own minds; that is why you let your team of poisoners (about 10 in all)do all the dirty work.
Very clever, but smart people now see right through you! Oh I know your answer to this will be ‘all I do is provide information’ ; but you see Oz you dont : you provide misinformation – just like a communist
Susan Shaw you are full of crap.
I personally have a letter from Doft declaring LL as a pyramid scheme. I loved LL and was very upset when I found out the truth behind the scam.
Beyond Freedom was wonderful for me and I still do many exercises it taught me but it was written primarily by Brent Payne.
I write on this blog to help others not fall for all the deceit that many MLM companies carry on with. You know what I am talking about. Making out you are making so much money when none is coming in. Full of lies.
This blog is here to let people make up their own minds so they are not lied to. Hopefully they will see the truth.
One day I am sure you will see the error in your ways.
Thank you Oz.
You really shouldn’t put yourself down like that, Susan.
Reading “Susan’s” rant made me laugh at first, but I suspect that she has lost a lot of money and self esteem in LLI/PMG so maybe a little sympathy for someone who finds themselves in her position is deserved.
From the very first time I saw an ad on Foxtel for UXL, I knew it was a scam. I have been in business for several decades and have come across many others like it. I also have had some contact with scientology so to discover the link between the two was no real surprise.
I would recommend two excellent books to Susan and anyone else who thinks that businesses such as LLI/PMG are either ethical or profitable for more than the founders.
Why People Believe Weird Things — Michael Shermer shows how even intelligent people can be conned.
The second book – which has been quoted by others on Oz’s excellent blog is SHAM, Steve Salerno’s fantastic book on the whole “self help” movement.
It explains how “thinly credentialed “experts” now dispense worthless or even counterproductive advice on everything from mental health to relationships to diet to personal finance and business strategy”.
I think that this book is a must read for anyone who reads or posts on this blog. I would be a real eye opener for the likes of Susan.
Thanks Boris, I have just ordered Why People Believe Weird Things.
I have always been curious as to why intelligent people can get caught up in weird cults. My father was a doctor and became heavily involved in an evangelical cult bringing his whole family into it. That is one reason why I was so disturbed by the fact I got caught up in LL as I swore I would never become involved in anything cult like.
I did get trapped by the UXL ad. I think one of the reasons for their down fall was that ad. So many people got brought in and it flooded the market so quickly.
As it was a business (as such) it was even more deceiving as you didn’t think of it as being like a cult. Although I will never forget going to the Super Charged Saturday on the Gold Coast and running into some friends of my husbands.
They were wondering what it was going on and thought the conference was to do with a Cult. I laughed about it at the time!
@Susan Shaw
Well that’s a compelling argument.
Regardless of my motivations, the act of writing itself being pretty high up there, does that change the fact that
Do you have a problem with the actual information provided in the articles, or just critical analysis of your industry? I know you’re in the business of selling hyped up positivism but that doesn’t mean everyone else has drunk themselves silly on the kool aid.
Negative opinions are everywhere, how do you cope in day to day life?
What the hell does Senator Conroy have to do with the MLM industry? Do you honestly believe BehindMLM would be refused classification?
Yes I’m sure the Rudd government have nothing better to do then to protect MLM marketers by blocking negative opinions about the companys they belong to.
Yes I’m still publishing away from Australia. You heard it here first folks.
Honestly just how far in your imaginary world does the Oz hoax go? I seem to have gone to a hell of lot of trouble to convince people I’m in Taiwan, what with all the OzSoapbox articles complete with photos and everything.
But no of course I’m still in Australia and it’s all just a lie.
As for running and hiding my name. The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m responding to an anonymous reader commenting under a pseudonym.
But of course your own opinions don’t apply to your own situation Susan do they? Everyone elses credibility goes down the toilet when they publish anonymously but yours is infallible.
Glanville was involved in Liberty League and a lot of people believe Liberty League’s compensation plan was a pyramid scheme, myself included. At the very least that’s enough to question Glanville’s track record or label it dubious.
Dubious: of doubtful quality or propriety; questionable.
Anyone would think Glanville had been labelled the biggest certified scammer of all time the way you preciously carry on.
Liberty League ran it in the US for 8 years and in Australia for nearly 2 before it was cracked down on. You acknowledge TVI Express is a pyramid scheme, well guess what… it’s still legal to market it in the US.
Does that mean now it’s not a pyramid scheme?
Of course not, just that the US seems to massively slow in dealing with scam companies. Probably due to the much larger business marketplace they have. When you’re dealing with some of the largest ponzi schemes of all time, investigating companies like Liberty League is probably way, way down the list.
I still maintain that it is no co-incidence Liberty League ceased to exist as we know it within a few months of a DoFT investigation. They could have seen the court case coming and bailed who knows. Nobody at Polaris Global has stated why and if Elena Fraga’s comments regarding compulsory non-disclosure forms required to be signed by EMC members, I doubt we’ll ever find out.
A readers comments do not change the fact that I personally received that letter from the NSW DoFT. It wasn’t handed to me by a third party, it came straight from the DoFT themselves.
Firstly I’ve never told people what to do. They are free to make up their own minds at any point. There is no requirement on behalf of the reader to access any of the information presented here.
Beyond the non-direct and unpredictable and uncertain revenue link between advertising any my blogs, there’s also no financial incentive for me to get anyone to do anything.
I provide information and my opinion on a whole range of topics. People read this and are then free to interact with it.
Bit different to signing people up to a business opportunity and marketing them products.
As for being a communist. I’m here providing information which you want to supress and you’ve publicly declared your support for a senator in favour of censoring the Australian internet.
Yeah, that makes me the communist. Rightio.
is this the Sue Shaw a Michael Hamburger junkie who jumps ship like her master ? LLI -> Lifepath -> Wealth Masters?
What next …GiveOpp?
so interesting how susan shaw disappears every time she is challenged or runs out of steam with her ridiculous arguments- which time and time again are held up to the light so everyone can see the big gaping holes in the blanket she is trying to cover up the lies with…
but i guess susan would just say she has moved on and is bigger and better now. wasting your time were we susan?
what has this got to do with my argument?
By the way Over the Lies, lets see the letter you got from DFE. Oz will put it up: he puts lots of fake letter up and he lets fake people say outright lies on this site> you havent put it up because it doesn’t exist . As I said previously the DFT would have gone to court if it was a pyramid scheme; they never did
You still use Beyond Freedom “because most of it was written by Brent Payne’.How do you know this? This is not what it says. This is your justification; an excuse. The product is excellent and you cant give it up!
finally why were your husband’s friends at the Super Saturday if they thought it was a cult? I dont get this comment at all; Weird
I don’t disappear. It is just that I have better things to do than to read this site every day: obviously unlke you.
@ Susan, “was scammed” doesn’t say the friends were at the same event. Unfortunately the DFT has so much on it’s plate that something like the LLI/PMG scam is seldom prosecuted.
If the letter was sent to anyone else and passed onto me via a third party, you’d have a leg to stand on. The only parties involved in the letter I received from the DoFT were me and the DoFT. Time to get over that one.
I receive a letter from the DoFT stating they’ve just finished an investigation into Liberty League and 2 days later the DoFT puts out a press release titled ‘Pyramid schemes alert’ stating
General consensus is due to the amount of people involved and the size of the business, rather then go to court they issued a warning to the Liberty League and Polaris Media Group was born. From memory Liberty League even issued a statement saying their lawyers were working with the DoFT following the press release.
Krider might have had PMG in the pipeline prior but it’s pretty obvious PMG’s launch was pushed up early for some reason. I mean who launches a company with half it’s product line missing?
Here’s a bit of news… TeamTVIOz so far has “vigorously defended” their position by emptying their bank account that was frozen due to court injunction, racking up TWO contempt of court charges in the process.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/indepth/alleged-tvi-express-promoter-now-accused-of-contempt-of-court/story-e6frewq9-1225892205412
There’s an ACCC press release as well.
In other news, TVI Express highlighted in “ABC2 Scam Alert” in Maryland,US
http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/money/consumer/scam_alerts/be-wary-of-%27work-from-home%27-offers
And their August 1st convention banner? Stole a picture of US president Obama, really… then chopped his head off. No, I am NOT joking.
http://kschang.blogspot.com/2010/07/tvi-express-stole-another-image.html
Thanks for the updates mate. Can’t wait to see how the court case plays out. The Obama poster ripoff was kinda amusing, as is the report from the SMH stating that TVI members insist the court case has been dropped despite there being a hearing date set lol.
Got an update from ACCC… the trial is over and done with and waiting for court to issue its decision. Contempt of Court charges against Jutsen is next week.
http://kschang.blogspot.com/2010/09/accc-update-contempt-case-against-teddi.html
Thanks for the updates Kasey. You’ve certainly got the TVI Express issues covered!
Any idea when the contempt of court case is going to play out? It’s Wednesday now and I haven’t read anything definite.
Thanks Chang, I have picked interest in establishing its real functions and implications.