wealth-masters-international-logoLast we checked in, on March 31st the Norwegian Gaming Board upheld it’s original decision that Wealth Masters International was a ‘pyramid scheme’.

At the time, Wealth Masters were given 30 days to appeal the decision and indeed according to information provided by BehindMLM reader M_Norway, they did just that.

On April 18th, 19th and 26th the Gaming Board received correspondence from Wealth Masters (both their US and Scandanavian operations). WMI Scandanavia seems to have officially launched an appeal whilst WMI US seems to have just thrown their support behind one.

In doing so, the US branch of Wealth Masters has definitely taken an aggressive approach. Stopping short of providing proof, in their last letter to the Norwegian Gaming Board, WMI accused the board of colluding with a Norwegian blogger in order to ‘smear, libel and discredit WMI’.

Quite a serious charge for a private company to lay against a government agency I’m sure you’ll agree.

The letter sent to the Gaming Board by WMI opens with the claim that

to date, Wealth Masters International has been forced to spend in excess of $80,000 USD on legal and support staff fees in an attempt to do whatever necessary to comply with the Gaming Board’s requests and to continue supporting our valued Norwegian Members.

Why they’ve released these figures to the Gaming Board I’ve got no idea. I hope they’re not seriously trying to guilt trip the Gaming Board into feeling sorry for them purely on a financial level.

Especially when you consider it was WMI who instigated and requested the Gaming Board investigations in the first place.

Who knew the Gaming Board would rule against them and they’d have to spend money defending themselves? Cry me a river.

The letter continues;

We have answered your questions openly and honestly, yet you refuse to reply to the specifics we have sent you which prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have done nothing to violate a single rule or law in Norway.

No doubt these specifics WMI are referencing were the multiple completely irrelevant points they lodged in their appeal. These points were mostly related to the products and services of Wealth Masters, rather than the business model upon which after analysing it the Gaming Board made its decision.

Their failure to recognise this is highlighted as WMI continue to bleat on about how nobody in Norway is listening to them;

Your biggest issue with WMI seems to be a question of value. WMI has in excess of 35,000 Members in more than 100 countries, yet this board is the ONLY group that has questioned the value of our productline.

What 35,000 alleged members has to do with value I have no idea, but it’s not even the value of WMI that the Gaming Board have an issue with.

First and foremost is the fact that WMI Scandinavia former CEO Harald Krystad is on the record informing the Gaming Board that ‘WMI has 200 active members in Norway. All of these (members) were also consultants for WMI’s products.’

In other words, in Norway (which is the jurisdiction the Gaming Board are concerned about), there are no retail customers of WMI.

Everyone who joins the company does so as a consultant looking to make money. They then go out and recruit others looking to do the same. Product sales on a retail level are non-existent and essentially what you’ve got is a recruitment game promising returns.

This and this alone is what the Gaming Board have taken issue with.

In their defense WMI throw up all sorts of irrelevant defenses.

WMI has in excess of 35,000 Members in more than 100 countries, yet this board is the ONLY group that has questioned the value of our productline.

What kind of defense is that? ‘Everybody else lets us do it so you do too!’

It is entirely possible that the Gaming Board are the only group that has actually sat down and crunched the numbers of WMI too. Claiming persecution in this instance is nonsense seeing as WMI requested the initial investigation in the first place.

Your review of our products is so basic and elementary that it is clear that you spent little time completing our educational programs.

Once again, it isn’t the products or their legitimacy that ultimately the Gaming Board reached it’s decision on. Sure they were a factor (the Gaming Board stopped short of labelling WMI’s products useless), but ultimately it’s the method in how their used.

You do WMI’s M1 course which tells you what you need to do but not how. The idea then is that you go to the M2 and M3 conferences, pay mega dollars and then… well, you’re then left having to resell the opportunity to anyone you can find.

The M2 and M3 are full of third party investment affiliates (who all no doubt pay commissions to WMI) but without capital you can’t invest. How do you raise capital? Recruit more WMI members and unfortunately they too then must do the same.

As you can see, on their own the conferences and m1 course aren’t really of much use – it’s the rewards in signing up new recruits that people join WMI for and this is evidenced in their complete lack of retail customers in Norway.

No doubt this 0/100% ratio of distributors to retail customers is fairly accurate in WMI’s global operations.

Your reliance on a blogger, who never bothered to contact the WMI home office even once for questions, should be an embarrassment to this board’s reputation.

I’ve been following this story for over six months now and I can’t recall having read anything about a third party blogger in either the Gaming Boards investigation or their responses to WMI’s appeals.

I might have missed what WMI are referring to but the cynic inside me finds it far more plausible that WMI’s legal team are just taking disgruntled Norwegian WMI distributors conspiracy theories at their word.

Of course it wouldn’t be the first time WMI’s Norway distributors clashed with bloggers, frequent former ‘WMI Gold winner’ Per Gunnar Hoem has threatened ‘violence and legal action‘ against a blogger in the past.

WMI’s letter continues to ramble on about how the Gaming Board don’t understand WMI’s product line (seems to be a recurring theme of MLM companies to claim critics just ‘don’t understand‘), how they provided ‘scores of positive testimonies‘ from WMI members (relevance?) and the offer by WMI to fly to Norway to meet the Gaming Board (it’s an investigation, not a dialogue).

The Gaming Board’s concerns were laid out quite clearly for WMI to address and one would think that instead of harping on about how great their members think their product line is, they’d be engaging in action to rectify these concerns.

The problem of course is that the Gaming Board’s concerns strike out at the heart of Wealth Master’s business model, and that unfortunately can’t be change. Well, not without overhauling the WMI business globally anyway – something I’m sure of which, so long as the dollars keep rolling in, WMI is hesitant to do.

Finally WMI wrap up their letter with threats of legal action while they consult with their ‘Norwegian members experts’ and demands of email and phone records to support their conspiracy theories.

Notably WMI have also fired their Norwegian lawyers, Helleroy (no doubt for incompetence as they continually comically contradicted themselves), and I presume are now representing themselves in Norway.

Interestingly the letter from WMI is dated 19th April and requests a further 30 day extension. Given the original Deadline was at the end of April, I assume this extension (if granted) expired on May 31st.

Taking the Norwegian government to court over conspiracy theories should be interesting… especially considering the implications.

If WMI do win then what happens next? Another investigation? What if that investigation results in the same conclusion, are we back at square one?

And given that WMI have basically accused the Gaming Board of being corrupt, I wonder if they’re any implications (legal or otherwise) on they themselves.

Stay tuned.

 

Footnote: You can read the full April 19th WMI US letter to Norway Gaming Board here.