Foreword: Sometime over the last 24 hours Polaris have pulled the site. As a result some of the links contained in this article no longer work. I’ve included an index at the end of the article of Google’s cache of the various pages I’ve referenced. /end foreword

Late last year Liberty League International changed over it’s name to Polaris Media Group. Not without controversy and suspicion, the name change occurred just days after the NSW Department of Fair Trading publicly stated that after investigating Liberty League International, they’d found the company fit the definition of a pyramid scheme.

In an effort to reassure everyone that the DoFT findings had nothing to do with the name change, Shane Krider (CEO) and his Executive Marketing Council (EMC) attempted to reassure everyone that the name change ‘new company’ had been 18 months in the making.

Upon closer inspection however certain facts didn’t support this idea. For starters the company name change was only put through a week before the NSW DoFT announcement. Secondly half the new products weren’t even ready for release yet.

Then there was the back office problems, mass resignations of EMC members, links to Scientology, confidentiality agreements and seemingly dwindling conference attendance numbers. The creation of Polaris Media Group on the eve of Liberty League being declared a pyramid scheme by an Australian regulator certainly didn’t feel like 18 months of planning.

Whilst most of the existing distributors who have stayed with Polaris Media Group are away at Polaris’ first 5 day ‘Influence Live’ conference in Macau, a new website has been quietly launched. [Continue reading…]

News filtered down through the grapevine this week that Polaris Media Group CEO Shane Krider and Rachel Oliver, one of the few older EMC members left in the company, were now romantically involved.

Whilst this in itself isn’t such a big deal it did get me thinking and slightly curious as to what the rest of the original EMC were now up to.

Having not looked into the Polaris Media Group world for a while now, I decided to spend an evening researching what some of the old EMC members were up to. [Continue reading…]

It’s widely known that members of Polaris Media Group subscribe to the principles of James Arthur Ray’s ‘The Secret’.

Before everything became centralised via the Polaris website backend many distributors advertised that they had utilised the teachings of the Secret and were all too willing to pass their expertise on.

Late last year two people died during a ‘The Secret’ event (a third died a week after the article was written), and authorities were left to decide whether or not to prosecute Arthur Ray, who was running the event, for criminal negligence.

Sometime yesterday authorities arrested Arthur Ray and have charged him with three counts of manslaughter. [Continue reading…]

Whilst talk of class action lawsuits have drifted in and out of the discussion sphere surrounding Polaris Media Group, there hasn’t really been that much of a non-internet based public challenge to distributors of the company.

Sure there’s the backlash that’s raged over the internet, but what about informing those that aren’t internet savvy? How do you reach out to those people before they’ve lost money?

Here in Melbourne at least one person has taken the fight for public awareness of Polaris Media Group to the streets… [Continue reading…]

Over the last month or so I’ve largely stayed out of the developments surrounding Polaris Media Group. Thanks to the tireless dedication of various people however, readers of OzSoapbox have been kept up to date with information as the leadership of this company appears to bottom out.

As we head towards January 2010 and wrap up what has been an interesting year for Polaris I thought I’d take some time and reflect on some correspondence I’d received over the past month.

The following was received via email and I think importantly highlights the mindset a lot of people involved in the company might be in. [Continue reading…]

By now the news of John and Shannon Lavenia, Tony Rush and Gene Braxton leaving Polaris has well and truly broken and anyone in Polaris Media Group should be aware of it.

Some people have suggested that this might be a simply re-branding ploy or an attempt to distance themselves from the Scientology link that has now plagued the Polaris Media Group business name.

After sleeping on it and going over what has been written I’m taking another approach. I do believe Lavenia, Rush and Braxton have left Polaris but it’s not because they’re rebranding another seperate direct financial opportunity.

It’s because indirectly they’re admitting the pyramid scheme business model that should be visible to anyone with half a clue is ultimately unsustainable. [Continue reading…]

Recently the CEO of Polaris Media Group, Shane Krider came out and publicly admitted he was a Scientologist. Whilst Krider is certainly free to practice whatever religion wants, what concerned me was the large question mark looming over the involvement of Scientology in the business side of Polaris.

In his statement to Polaris Media Group distributors, Krider knew this concern was at the core of people’s interest in the correlation between the two organisations and thus was one of the points he addressed.

Polaris is purely a business opportunity. We focus on helping people be the best they can and live a great life.

Simple and to the point, only I wasn’t convinced. [Continue reading…]

After months of silence, denials and accusations of rumour spreading Polaris management have finally admitted the link between Polaris Media Group and Scientology.

In an email sent out to Polaris Media Group distributors today, Polaris CEO Shane Krider has finally broken his silence and publicly admitted he is a member of the church of Scientology. [Continue reading…]

Since writing about the public connection between Scientology and Polaris Media Group a lot of accusations and claims have been thrown around as the discussion ran hot.

There’s been a lot of claims made and from what I gather the revelation of the link, which up until only recently hasn’t been publicised with any concrete proof, has made a lot of people uncomfortable.

Up until now I’ve been written off by Polaris EMC as spreading rumours, despite the fact that I didn’t tell the Lavenia’s to promote Scientology or doctor the Facebook image in which they do so.

Well it seems at least one ex-EMC member has decided to speak out. [Continue reading…]

Since Liberty League changed over to Polaris Media Group there has been much talk and insistence by Polaris supporters that Polaris is now truly about the retail products and building a retail business for yourself.

Gone are the days of promised incomes, building a sales pyramid and luring people into the business opportunity with misleading information.

A few days ago I went to check my mail and there was a little bit of paper sitting in the mailbox. As I glanced over it and walked over to the recycle bin I paused for a second and realised I might be looking at my first ever Polaris Media distributor flyer.

I’d heard rumours of Polaris flyers in widespread circulation up in Queensland and NSW but to date had not actually seen any Polaris paraphernalia down here in Melbourne.

As I got inside I went over to the computer and punched in the web address, sure enough good old Unified Wealth Solutions came up.

Now at this point I’d have most likely just thrown the flyer in the bin and left it at that. There’s hundreds of Polaris Media Group distributors marketing the same products to Australia and I certainly don’t need to write about each and every one of them.

What caught my eye with this particular advertisement was the marketing. The same nonsensical claims that got Liberty League into trouble with the Australian authorities are still being used to promote Polaris Media Group. [Continue reading…]