It appears somebody at Visalus is intent on settling the company’s outstanding lawsuits.

After reporting on settlement of Visalus’ pyramid scheme class-action, next on my calendar was an update on the Visalus securities fraud class-action.

To my surprise that case also had a settlement submitted for approval on May 23rd.

The Visalus securities fraud class-action dates back to 2017.

In the lawsuit plaintiffs Caprece Byrd, Bryant Williams and Renae White, alleged Visalus committed securities fraud through their Founders Equity Incentive Plan.

In late 2018 the case was referred to mediation. This appears to have lead to the submitted settlement.

As per the terms of the settlement, Visalus securities fraud victims have been given two options; a Cash Option and a Benefits Option.

The Cash Option is a one-time payment to Visalus affiliates, ranging from $1500 to $4000 based on rank.

In their complaint, Byrd, Williams and White cited $65,000 investments made under Visalus’ Founders Equity Incentive Plan.

The alternative Benefits Options sees a Visalus affiliate retain their distributorship and

  • receive a 25% commission rate on product sales for one year;
  • free basic enrollment membership for one year;
  • free tickets to one Visalus event (must be redeemed within 18 months);
  • free 12 months Vi-Net subscription for affiliates who were already paying for the service, or 6 months for everyone else.

Class-action representatives Caprece Byrd, Byrant Watts, Renae White, Laura Herl, Frank McWhorter and Connie Bates together will also share a $450,000 payment.

Split evenly that’s $75,000 each, minus the legal bill.

The settlement defines class members as Visalus affiliates who

qualified for units in the Founders’ Equity Incentive Plan between January 1, 2015 through March 1, 2017.

Defendants in Visalus’ pyramid class-action case are excluded.

On June 14th preliminary approval for the submitted settlement was granted.

As with the pyramid scheme settlement case, a Fairness Hearing has been scheduled for October 1st.

In line with the FTC and alleged pyramid scheme claims, the SEC hasn’t taken any public action on Visalus’ alleged securities fraud.

Weird, considering these are probably the most public examples of “high-level” MLM related fraud taking place in recent memory.