multilevel marketing

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
by Amanda Montell
Published 14 Jun 2021

She never says exactly what the product is or who she’s working for, but I can tell just by her hazily inspirational status updates, forced exclamation points, and nebulous hashtags that it could be nothing but the perky dialect of direct sales. “Welp, another one bites the dust,” I text my current best friend, Esther, who grew up in Florida and can name a dozen ex–high school classmates of her own who’ve been sucked into the same “cult” as Becca: the cult of Multilevel Marketing. Multilevel marketing, network marketing, relationship marketing, direct sales . . . there are at least half a dozen synonyms for MLMs, the legally loopholed sibling of pyramid schemes. At once a pillar of Western capitalism but relegated to the fringes of our workforce, MLMs are pay-and-recruit organizations powered not by salaried employees but “affiliates.”

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“God’s laws”: “Amway Speaks: Memorable Quotes,” Cult Education Institute, https://culteducation.com/group/815-amway/1674-amway-speaks-memorable-quotess.html. Trump made a killing from his endorsements of several MLMs: James V. Grimaldi and Mark Maremont, “Donald Trump Made Millions from Multilevel Marketing Firm,” Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-made-millions-from-multilevel-marketing-firm-1439481128. Trump and his three children could be sued for fraud: Lisette Voytko, “Judge Rules Trump Can Be Sued for Marketing Scheme Fraud,” Forbes, July 25, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/07/25/judge-rules-trump-can-be-sued-for-marketing-scheme-fraud/?

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One of my best friends works for a cancer nonprofit and brings back amusing stories of the love-bomb-y buzzwords and quasi-religious mantras they repeat on end to keep fund-raisers hyped: “Someday is today”; “This is our Week of Winning”; “Let’s fly above and beyond”; “You are the greatest generation of warriors and heroes in this quest for a cancer cure.” “It reminds me of the way multilevel marketing people talk,” she tells me (referencing culty direct sales companies like Mary Kay and Amway—more on these later). “It’s cultlike, but for a good cause. And hey, it works.” In part 5 of this book, we’ll learn about all sorts of woo-woo chants and hymns used in “cult fitness” studios that may sound extremist to skeptical outsiders, but aren’t actually all that destructive when you take a closer listen.

When the Wolves Bite: Two Billionaires, One Company, and an Epic Wall Street Battle
by Scott Wapner
Published 23 Apr 2018

Up popped Einhorn’s first slide. “M-L-M,” it read—an obvious reference, those in the auditorium thought, to multilevel marketing, the kind of business Herbalife was. The assembled journalists and a cadre of finance bloggers clutched their phones, ready to tweet the news when it became official. Herbalife braced for the worst. And then… Martin Marietta Materials. It was all a ruse. M-L-M was the ticker symbol for the construction materials company and not an acronym for multilevel marketing. Einhorn was just screwing with the company, and laughed, as did all in attendance. Herbalife shares spiked 15 percent almost immediately out of pure relief.

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See also CNBC Meister, Keith, 113–114 Merkin, J. Ezra, 30, 31 Messi, Lionel, 53 Meyer, Edward, 153 Meyers, Maxwell, 104 Microsoft, 92, 93, 94 Milken, Michael, 121, 125–126 Minneapolis Star Tribune, 38 MLM. See multilevel marketing companies Model, Allen J., 153 Moelis & Company, 77 Moffett Group, 145 momentum on Wall Street, 166 Monroe, Jana, 6 Moritz, Robert E., 139 Motorola, 128 Mt. Sinai Medical School, 129 Multilevel marketing (MLM) companies, 13, 14, 30, 43–44, 51, 68, 73, 90, 112, 143, 196 and Amway decision of 1979, 44 Mylan pharmaceuticals, 127 NASDAQ Biotechnology ETF, 172 Nasdaq exchange, 48 National Consumers League (NCL), 142–143 natural gas, 183 Newton, Wayne, 46 New Yorker, 115 New York Post, 138 New York Stock Exchange, 53, 54, 62 price for seat on, 118 New York Supreme Court, 31 New York Times, 32, 34–35, 60, 96, 101, 117, 123, 128, 144, 168, 169 DealBook page/site, 110, 157 Nixon, Richard M., 119 Northstar Capital, 113–114 Och, Daniel, 29 Och Ziff Capital Management, 29 oil prices, 119, 183 One57 high-rise, 168 OPEC, 119 Oppenheimer, Peter, 185–186 options market, 117 Ozark Airlines, 124 Parsons, Richard D., 128 Pauli, Matthew H., 153 Paulson, John, 67 Pearson, J.

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This is the inside story of how it all went down—the fights, the factions, the money, and the mayhem of an epic Wall Street war. 1 THE PROFILE Herbalife Chief Executive Officer Michael O. Johnson had been waiting for weeks, hoping its arrival would help unmask the man who had threatened to destroy him. It was spring 2014, and the most closely followed multilevel marketing company on Earth was under siege. For the better part of eighteen months, Wall Street’s resident rock star, the hedge-fund manager William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management, had waged war against the company, burning through tens of millions of dollars of his firm’s own money, with no end in sight.

The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
by David Callahan
Published 1 Jan 2004

BioLean is made by Wellness International Network (WIN), a global company specializing in the sale of health products that are touted as helping people lose weight, prevent disease, and improve their skin. The company operates through multilevel marketing, a business strategy most famously associated with Amway. Multilevel marketing gets ordinary people to act as sellers for a company's products. These individuals, dubbed "distributors," are lured by the promise not just of making money off their own sales but also of making money off the sales of other distributors that they recruit. That's the theory, anyway. In practice, multilevel marketing can often amount to a pyramid scheme. State law enforcement agencies and consumer protection agencies have file cabinets filled with consumer complaints about multilevel marketing.

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Braunstein is only one of many doctors pushing Wellness products to patients: to expand its presence in doctors' offices, the company recruits leading physicians to help convince other doctors to get in on the selling action. And Wellness is only one of over a hundred multilevel marketing companies that sell health products. A growing number of physicians are caught up in these pyramid schemes—lured by the promise of extra income. Doctors involved in the multilevel-marketing companies, in turn, represent only a small fraction of those physicians who are pitching health products to their patients. Reports peg the sale of health supplements by doctors at nearly $200 million in 2001, a tenfold increase from 1997.

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State law enforcement agencies and consumer protection agencies have file cabinets filled with consumer complaints about multilevel marketing. Tawnya Cummiskey didn't know any of this when she paid Dr. Braunstein $60 for BioLean. Nor did she realize that her purchase included the expectation that she become a distributor, a fact that she learned only when she received a sales kit in the mail from WIN. All she had wanted was the BioLean, a supplement that Dr. Braunstein assured her would improve her health and which he said was only available through WIN. "I was used to following a doctor's advice," she said later. "Doctors have the training, so you've got to respect their expertise."

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside
by Xiaowei Wang
Published 12 Oct 2020

People like the minister and author Norman Vincent Peale sold the power of positive thinking and a “gospel” of prosperity, while entrepreneurs like William Penn Patrick pioneered the MLM tactic of charging sellers in his multilevel marketing company, Holiday Magic, for courses on “mind dynamics.” This blend of mysticism and capitalism paved the way for the 1980s, when multilevel marketing morphed into its current form, becoming predatory and insidiously corporate. This form is far more exploitative, wooing people with the illusion of flexible hours and “being your own boss,” only to push them deep into debt by getting them to purchase up front thousands of dollars’ worth of often unsellable, low-quality merchandise.

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What will it beeeeeeeee?” Kristie shrieks, with great suspense. “Will it be twins?” What I’m watching this evening is a pearl party—it’s like a Tupperware party for the Facebook age, where hostesses sell goods on social media livestream. Selling parties like this are not just for pearls. These days, the multilevel marketing (MLM) industry is thriving on social media as millions of people hawk aromatherapy oils, yoga leggings, and vitamins across Instagram and Facebook. While MLMs have been known for their predatory, pyramid-scheme structures, some MLMs, like Rodan + Fields, are now legitimizing themselves, sporting luxe offices in downtown San Francisco, near Salesforce and Google.

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As a pearl party participant, you can watch on Facebook Live, and you can also reserve an oyster by filling in an order form before the scheduled party. Reserving the oyster is around US$20, and you keep whatever pearl is inside the oyster. You get to watch as the oyster is opened for you on Facebook Live during the broadcast by the hostess. She typically calls herself a “pearl consultant” for a multilevel marketing company that distributes these oysters. As a consultant, she purchases the wish pearl oysters from the MLM company up front, and there’s pressure for her to sell as many as she can, otherwise she’s stuck with oysters that she’s unable to off-load. All oysters have a pearl in them, and sometimes two, which is known in pearl party parlance as “getting twins.”

Virus of the Mind
by Richard Brodie
Published 4 Jun 2009

The initiator of the pyramid needs to enroll only 14 people to make his $4,000; after ten pyramid splittings, new recruits to the row of eight would need to enroll 14,336 new players, for a total investment of $14,336,000, in order for all of them to cash out. When you saw “profit viruses,” did you immediately think of Amway? Amway is the most successful of the currently proliferating profit viruses known as multilevel marketing (MLM). Multilevel marketing is distinct from a pyramid scheme and is legal. Instead of selling memberships that have no value except that they give you the right to sell more memberships, MLM creates a pyramidshaped network of distributors of an actual product. Upline distributors receive a percentage of the sales from the downline distributors whom they recruited.

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In some ways, you could look upon MLM as morally superior to traditional businesses with relatively unchanging organizational structures. In traditional companies, those at the top tend to stay there, making large profits at the expense of low-level employees with relatively little opportunity for advancement. Multilevel marketing is the business of the future. As broadcast media and the competition for the consumer’s mind become costlier, noisier, and more crowded, the opportunity to sell directly and cheaply through a multilevel network grows more and more attractive. 199 virus of the mind A pyramid scheme, like this one, is an example of a profit virus.

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There are many examples of such virus shells in modern life: — Political campaign organizations. These often use the same basic formula: renting a vacant shell of office space, calling people and asking them to volunteer, and then having those volunteers call still more volunteers. The volunteers self-replicate, and you can plug in literally any political agenda. — Multilevel marketing companies, as described earlier in the chapter. The product sold is really secondary to the structure of the business. Of course, you need to have a real product to make it legal, but it’s effectively programming members to recruit more members that makes it work. — Word-of-mouth seminar series.

The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit
by Aja Raden
Published 10 May 2021

bathtub history hoax mentalizing ability, in theory of mind mermaid documentary, of Animal Planet Mesmer, Franz Anton mesmerism Michelangelo Milgram, Stanley Miller, William Franklin “520 Miller” mirror neurons, Gauchais effect of MLM. See multilevel marketing Mona Lisa, by da Vinci money. See also 2008 financial crisis counterfeiting of Guru Con cost of memory and competition over PTL Club donation requests seed, magical thinking on televangelists and money-box con, of Lustig Morrison, Jim mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in 2008 financial crisis multilevel marketing (MLM) murder attempts, on Rasputin museums, art forgery in mystical experiences, false-memory effect in narcotics. See opiates natural born liars nature, of lying novelty, delusion of obedience experiment, of Milgram opiates and narcotics, in patent medicines opioid crisis pharmaceutical marketing and Victorian Osteen, Joel Parker, George C.

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Every new rep signed would bring a bonus and a percentage of her sales to the woman who’d signed up the new girl into her sub-Pyramid. That sounds swell until you consider that there are only so many houses in the cul-de-sac, and once they’re all reps, well … they can’t sell it to each other. This is known as multilevel marketing, or MLM. Rather than one big Pyramid in which everyone at every level pays the top and is paid by the top, MLM is a giant Pyramid made of numerous sub-Pyramids. Each of those Avon reps has to buy product from the mother ship—that’s the investment—but they’re never paid out from the top. They’re never really paid at all.

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Because of this sub-Pyramid structure, the larger Pyramid is less prone to inevitable collapse. Even so, the math still ensures that, eventually, the only real money an “investor” can earn comes from bonuses on aggressively signing new sales reps, not from selling the actual product, because even the leviathan of Pyramid Schemes is still a Pyramid Scheme. Most people involved in a multilevel marketing scheme make no money at all, and many go into deep debt. Here’s the fun thing about MLMs: they’re not governed by exactly the same federal laws or accounting standards as say, a real business—so you can’t necessarily look up any actual financials on them. That’s convenient … for a business model that makes almost no one any money and leaves quite a few bankrupt.

Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery
by Christie Aschwanden
Published 5 Feb 2019

For help, she turns to one of her sponsors, AdvoCare, a multilevel-marketing company that sells a wide variety of vitamins, supplements, and drink powders. Prodromides’s supplement regimen and endorsement deal are hardly unique. The sports supplement industry is expected to reach a value of $12 billion annually by 2020.2 Much of the money the supplement industry spends promoting its wares goes to professional athletes, teams, leagues, and athletic events. AdvoCare alone has sponsorship deals with NASCAR, the MLS, and multiple NCAA events, as well as with individual athletes like NFL quarterback Drew Brees. Numerous other multilevel-marketing and supplement companies have struck deals with high-profile sporting events and teams.

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The next level up, advisors, can get bonuses for signing up distributors to work under them. The company promises that people who work hard to build their AdvoCare business can reap life-changing financial rewards, but a 2016 investigation by ESPN reporter Mina Kimes found that, as with many multilevel-marketing programs, very few people make even a modest income from selling the products.4 According to Kimes’s report, participants in the system are pressured to buy inventory to keep their status as distributors, and anyone who questions the AdvoCare model is labeled a “dream killer.” A guy at her gym at the time introduced Prodromides to AdvoCare, and, like many users, she began the program with AdvoCare’s 24-day challenge, which is touted as the jump start your body needs to reach your goals.

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Communications, 267n.6 meditation, 129–36 Memorial University of Newfoundland, 114 mental focus, improving, 136–38 Mesa Monument Striders Running Club, 12, 17 metabolic window of opportunity, 60, 61, 63–65 milk, 72–73 Miller, Von, 94, 96 mind-set, recovery, See recovery mind-set Mirkin, Gabe, 81, 83–84, 87 mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, 97–98 MLB, See Major League Baseball MLS, See Major League Soccer MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters, 97–98 Mobility WOD, 88 Monfort Family Human Performance Research Lab, 15 mood, 137, 221–23 Moore, Brian, 205 Morgan, Nick, 116, 117 Morgan, William, 221–22 Morrison, Philip, 55, 266n.1 motor skills learning, 147 multilevel-marketing programs, 166 multivitamins, 162–63, 176 Murphy, Robert J., 35 Murray, Bob, 36–37 muscle adaptation, 267n.11 Muscle and Fitness, 169 muscle cramps, hydration and, 52 Muscular Development, 172 Muse headband, 132–35 Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, 85 myithlete.com, 216 myofascial release, 253 MyoGenX, 182 nandrolone metabolites, 279n.20 napping, 150, 155–59 NASCAR, 165, 279n.13 Nash, Steve, 157 National Athletic Trainers Association, 52 National Basketball Association (NBA), 84, 135, 151; See also specific teams and players floating in, 122 icing in, 90 massage in, 110 morning shoot-arounds in, 153–54 napping in, 157 postexercise refueling in, 70–71 substances banned by, 279n.13 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), 165, 186, 249, 279n.13 National Football League (NFL), 84, 135; See also specific teams and players Gatorade in, 36 icing in, 82, 90 massage in, 110 meditation in, 131 napping in, 157 night competitions in, 158 nutritional supplements in, 179 substances banned by, 279n.13 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 51, 53, 174 National Hockey League (NHL), 84, 110, 279n.13; See also specific teams National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, 282n.3 National Strength and Conditioning Association, 52 natural foods, 72–74 “natural” recovery supplements, 161–62 NBA, See National Basketball Association NCAA, See National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) near infrared radiation, 107 Nelson, Aaron, 153–54 nervous system, 136, 216 neural benefits, of massage, 114–15 Newcastle United, 82 New England Journal of Medicine, 179 New England Patriots, 53, 139 New York, New York, 9, 238 New York Barbell, 172 New York City Marathon, 187, 230, 281n.3 New Yorker, 131 New York Knicks, 7 New York Magazine, 7 New York Times, 14, 157, 237 NFL, See National Football League NHL, See National Hockey League Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma, 92 Nieman, David, 201–2, 236 night competitions, 158–59 Nighttime recovery (product), 167, 168 Nike, 93 Noakes, Timothy, 44–52, 264n.15, 265n.19 nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), 237 NormaTec compression boots, 117–19, 247–49, 253 Novartis, 37 NPD Group, 8 NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), 237 null results, 174 nutrient timing, 58, 60–66, 77, 267n.11 nutrition, See postexercise refueling nutritional supplements, 160–84 by AdvoCare, 163–69 claims about, 160–62 and fear of missing out, 162–64 illicit drugs in, 175–79 illnesses/injuries associated with, 179–82 published studies of, 169–75 reasons athletes use, 182–84 for recovery, 62, 64 Nystand, Trond, 121 Oakland University, 49 objective measures, 224–25 O’Doul’s, 19 Ohio State University, 35 Oklahoma State, 229 Olympic athletes; See also specific games and athletes coaches’ endorsements of products for, 172 cold therapy for, 89–90 compression boot use by, 119 meditation for, 135 napping by, 155–57 nutritional supplement use by, 179 recovery by, 6–7 recovery modalities used by, 246–48 supplement manufacturers sponsorship of, 165 Olympic Training Center, 203, 246 OmegaPlex fish oil, 167 open placebos, 239–40 opioid receptors, 235 Orange Bowl, 34 Oregon Health & Science University, 214–15 Oregon Project, 93 Orreco, 205, 206 orthosomnia, 148–49 ostarine, 176 overhydration, 45–47, 49 overreaching, functional, 190 overtraining syndrome, 89, 185–202, 204 for age-group and masters athletes, 197–201 blood test biomarkers and, 213 causes of, 190–91 functional overreaching vs., 190 for Ryan Hall, 185–88, 191–95 and immune system, 201–2 recovery and, 191–95, 251–52 Restwise and, 224 for Jarrod Shoemaker, 195–97 symptoms of, 188–90 overuse injuries, 219 oxygen, supplemental, 105, 233 oxygen saturation, blood, 223 OxyPro Elite, 280n.25 PacificHealth Laboratories, 58–59, 62, 267n.6 pain, 83, 113, 241, 245 PainScience.com, 110 parasympathetic nervous system, 136, 216 Peake, Johnathan, 126, 132 Peak Performance (Magness and Stulberg), 226 peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwiches, 70–71 Pedlar, Charles, 205–6 peer review journals, 174 Penfold, Lachlan, 71 perceived exertion, 19, 20, 221 perceived soreness, 91–92, 137 perceived training load, 219–20 performance alcohol’s effect on, 15–28 blood tests to improve, 213–14 compression garment use and, 117 hydration and, 37–41, 43–44, 48 in overtraining syndrome, 188–90 recovery and, 8, 251–52 sleep and, 144–49 sports performance studies, 21–28 stress and, 126–29 undereating and, 74–76 periodized recovery approach, 77–78, 90 pet owners, stress relief for, 128–29 pharmaceutical companies, 173–74 Phelps, Michael, 6–7, 245 Philadelphia 76ers, 2, 234, 239–40 Phillips, Stuart, 32, 33, 65, 162–63 Phinney, Davis, 285n.14 Phinney, Taylor, 248–49, 285n.14 Phoenix, Arizona, 9 Phoenix Suns, 119, 153 phosphate buffer supplements, 254 Picky Bars, 249 piriformis, 4 pitch count, 218 placebo effect, 233–50, 284n.6 characteristics of effective placebos, 241–42 and influence of beliefs on sensory appraisal, 235–39 for massage, 110, 114–15 and Olympic athletes’ use of recovery modalities, 246–48 open placebos, 239–40 and psychological/mental benefits of recovery, 248–50 in randomized, controlled trials, 242–43 in research on recovery modalities, 91, 233–35 and ritualization in recovery modalities, 244–46 in sports drinks studies, 39–40 placebos active, 83, 241 effective, 241–42 in nutrition studies, 63 open, 239–40 plasma osmolality, 48–49 PMSM (postmassage soreness and malaise), 112 pneumatic compression devices, 117–19, 242–44; See also NormaTec compression boots Polar, 216–17 POMS (profile of mood states) questionnaire, 222–23 Portland Trail Blazers, 153 Portman, Robert, 59–62, 267n.6 post-exercise anabolic window, 63–65 postexercise refueling, 55–79 1980s beliefs about, 55–56 culture/tradition-based food selection for, 71–74 Endurox R4 beverage, 58–62 food quality for, 66–70 ideal food for recovery concept, 78–79 in NBA, 70–71 nutrient timing in, 62–66 Power Bar, 56–58 train low, race high paradigm, 76–78 undereating and performance, 74–76 postmassage soreness and malaise (PMSM), 112 postviral fatigue syndrome, 202 Powell, Matt, 8 Powerade, 38 PowerBar, 56–58, 62, 67 Prasad, Vinay, 214–15 predatory publishers, 174–75 prehydrating, 51 preseason, cold therapy in, 90 Price, Catherine, 183 Prodromides, Mary Beth, 163–69, 177 professional athletes; See also specific organizations and individuals endorsements by, 32–33, 165 icing by, 80–84 overtraining syndrome for, 197 recovery by, 7–8, 94 sleep quality for, 151–55 profile of mood states (POMS) questionnaire, 222–23 Propel, 38 proprietary blends, in nutritional supplements, 182 protein beer in recovery vs., 29 in postexercise refueling, 60–64, 172 in sports nutrition, 170, 171 synthesis of, in body, 111, 252 protein beverages (shakes), 64, 167–68, 179 psychological benefits of blood tests, 214 of compression garments, 117 of icing, 92–93 of pneumatic compression devices, 119 of recovery modalities, 246 psychological stress, 126–28, 200, 220–21 Puddicombe, Andy, 131–32 Pyeongchang Olympic Games (2018), 14 Quaker Oats Company, 36 Queensland University of Technology, 126, 132 Quest Diagnostics, 210–15, 282n.4 Radcliffe, Paula, 82, 92–93 radiative heat, 107 Raglin, Jack, 221, 222 randomized, controlled trials, 24, 242–43 rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, 143, 148 rate of perceived exertion (RPE), 221 Raven, Peter, 267n.3 reaction time, sleep and, 146 Reboot Float Spa, 122–25 Recharge Sport, 249 recovery active, 119–20 aging and, 252–53, 256 blood flow in, 102–5 inflammation process in, 84–89 market for products/services related to, 8–10 mental benefits of, 248–50 mood as indicator of, 221–23 and overtraining syndrome, 190–95 as part of training, 6–7, 103, 251–52 by professional athletes, 94 psychological aspects of, 221–24, 226, 239 short-term, 76, 91 recovery assistants, 2–3 recovery beer, 14–15 recovery centers, 8–9, 244; See also specific centers recovery coach, 192 recovery mind-set, 121–38 cultivating, 138 floating and, 122–26, 136–38 injury/illness and failure to cultivate, 121–22 meditation and stress, 129–35 overtraining syndrome and, 193, 194 stress and physical performance, 126–29 recovery modalities, 3; See also scientific research on recovery methods effectiveness of, 9–10 placebo effect in research on, 233–35 randomized, controlled trials of, 242–43 ritualization of, 244–46 recovery nectar, 161–62 recovery regime, 254–56 RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport), 75–76 red wine baths, 7 Reed, Tim, 227–28 refueling, See postexercise refueling Reinl, Gary, 84–88, 93 relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), 75–76 relaxation, 123–26, 128–29, 135, 200 REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, 143, 148 repeat bout effect, 13, 86 research studies; See also scientific research on recovery methods influence of single-study results, 31, 172–73 metrics in, 31, 44 on nutritional supplements, 169–75 pitfalls of sports performance studies, 21–28 placebo effect in, 233–35 of sports drink effectiveness, 37–41 study design in, 30–31 resistance phase, of exercise, 60 respiratory exchange ratios, 20 rest, 127–28, 192, 197, 247, 251–52 resting heart rate, 215 Restwise app, 223–24 rhabdomyolysis, 112, 237 RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) therapy, 81 Richardson, Jason, 2 Riebe, Deborah, 272–73n.8 Ring of Truth, The (television series), 55, 266n.1 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games (2016), 6, 69, 119, 130, 157, 245 rituals, 92–93, 244–46 Roberts, Anthony, 162, 180–82 Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, 136 Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, 282n.2 Rodgers, Bill, 187 Rojas, Ric, 248 Rolfing, 253 rolling (foam rolling), 3–4, 113–14, 244, 272n.8 Rolling Stone, 82 Rose, Derrick, 157 Rossignol ski team, 129 Route 66 Marathon, 229 Rovell, Darren, 35 RPE (rate of perceived exertion), 221 RTE, See run to exhaustion Ruby, Brent, 70 Run Fast, Eat Slow (Kopecky), 75 Runner’s World, 237 running economy, 238 run to exhaustion (RTE), 16, 20, 22–25, 40 Rusch, Rebecca, 224 Ryun, Jim, 41 Sacramento Kings, 151 Sacramento VA Medical Center, 242 safety, of nutritional supplements, 180–82 salt, 35–36, 211, 263n.5 sample size, 25–28 San Antonio Spurs, 153 Sands, William, 203–5, 246 San Francisco Bay Area, California, 9, 238 San Francisco CrossFit, 88 San Francisco Giants, 177–78 San Francisco Rim Marathon, 253 sauna, infrared, 105–9, 242, 247, 248 Saw, Anna, 225 Scherr, Johannes, 14 Schoenfeld, Brad Jon, 63–65, 267n.11 Schwabacher, Richard, 213 ScienceBasedMedicine.org, 110 Science Museum of Minnesota, 270n.7 Science of Running, The (Magness), 195 scientific research on recovery methods, 11–31, 233–35, 242–43 alcohol and exercise recovery studies, 28–30 beer and running performance study, 16–28 and beer as recovery drink, 11–15 beliefs about, 31 biological performance ceiling, 233–34 cryotherapy, 100 infrared saunas, 109 pitfalls of sports performance studies, 21–28 study design in, 30–31 Sea Level Spa, 105 Seattle Storm, 151–55, 158 self-motivation, 121 sensation, placebo effect and, 241, 245 sensory deprivation chambers, 123 sensory inputs, appraisal of, 235–39 Sharfstein, Joshua, 181 Sharman, Bill, 152–53 Shiffrin, Mikaela, 155–56, 244–45 Shires, Dana, 263n.2 Shoemaker, Jarrod, 195–97 shoot-arounds, 152–54 Shorter, Frank, 187 short sleepers, 145 short-term recovery, 76, 91 Signature Tracking for Optimized Nutrition and Training (STRONG) program, 136, 137 Silbert, Glen, 140–41 Silver, Adam, 71, 157 Simpsons, The (television series), 122 Singh, Meeta, 145–46, 149, 158 60 Minutes (television series), 278n.11 skiers, napping by, 155–57 SKINS, 116–17 Skippy, 71 Slater, Kelly, 82 sleep importance of, 172 and meditation, 131 and overtraining syndrome, 196 quantity of, 144–45 as recovery tool, 233 sleep cycles, 148 sleep deprivation, 144–47 sleepiness, 145–46 sleep quality, 139–59 feedback loops associated with, 149–51 fitness trackers for monitoring, 147–49 floating to improve, 137 napping as recovery strategy, 155–59 for professional basketball players, 151–55 recovery and, 142 sleep deprivation and performance, 144–47 TB12 sleepwear to improve, 139–44 Sleep Works, 167, 168 “small” research studies, 264n.13 Smucker’s, 71 soccer players, 220, 222; See also specific organizations social media, 6–8, 80, 165, 227 sodium supplementation, 52 soft tissue work, 3–4 soigneurs, 110, 272n.3 soreness; See also delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) perceived, 91–92, 137 postmassage soreness and malaise, 112 SPARK energy drink, 167–69 sponsorships, 72–73, 165, 183–84 sports drinks, 37–41; See also specific products Sports Illustrated, 7 Sports Integrated, 116 Sports Medicine Book, The (Mirkin), 81 sports nutrition science, 169–71 sports science, 41 sport watches, 216–18 stage one sleep, 142 stage two sleep, 142 stage three sleep, 142, 143 Stanford University, 152, 186 Starrett, Kelly, 88, 129 statistical significance, 27–28 steroids, 179 Stevens, Evelyn “Evie,” 137–38, 274n.11 Stickgold, Robert, 147 Stieda, Alex, 55–56, 266n.2 Stim O Stam, 254 stimulants, 179 Stokely-Van Camp, 34 storytelling, in marketing, 32–33 Stoudemire, Amar’e, 7 Stout, Jeff, 170 Straka, Todd, 247–48 Strava app, 226, 227 “streakers” (daily runners), 138 Strength and Health, 172 strength training, 85, 88, 91 stress, 255–56 floating to relieve, 122–26 and meditation, 129–30, 129–35 and overtraining syndrome, 190, 191, 198–200 and physical performance, 126–29 psychological, 126–28, 200, 220–21 recovery programs as cause of, 247–48 in training, 102–3 variability in response to, 203–5 stretching, 237–39 stretching studios, 238 STRONG (Signature Tracking for Optimized Nutrition and Training) program, 136, 137 Stulberg, Brad, 226 subjective measures, 224–25 Sullivan, John, 135 sunburn, 53 Super Bowl, 141 supercompensation, 80–81, 91, 103, 229 superfoods, 74 superoxygenation, of blood, 98–99 Supplement 411 program, 178 supplements, nutritional, See nutritional supplements surgery, placebo, 244 Swann, John, 183 Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, 130 swelling, 87, 116, 118 swimmers, 157–58, 221–22 Swisswing, 5–6 sympathetic nervous system, 136 Talib, Aqib, 94, 96 Tarawera Ultramarathon, 231 TB12 electrolytes, 53, 144 TB12 Method, The (Brady), 53 TB12 sleepwear, 139–44 temperature body, 42, 44–45, 47 for sleeping, 143 testosterone, 142–43, 178, 189 thirst, 36, 49–54 Thomas, Jesse, 224 Thorisdottir, Annie, 119 Thorland, Jonas Bloch, 244 Thorne Research, 165 Tortoise & The Hare & Tom Brady, The (Funny or Die and Lacera), 143–44, 275n.2 Total cereal, 209 Tour de France, 55, 120, 234, 266n.2 tradition, food selection for refueling and, 71–74 Trail Runner, 231 trainers, endorsements by, 183–84 training beliefs about, 186 as competition, 226, 227 optimization of, 228–29 recovery as part of, 6–7, 103, 251–52 sleep and, 147 stress and, 102–3, 127 and symptoms of overtraining, 189–90 timing of performance and, 158 variability in response to, 225–29 training impulse score (TRIMP), 218 training load, 102, 218–21, 225, 228, 283n.9 training metrics, 205–32 blood biomarkers, 205–15 heart rate, 215–16 interpreting blood test results, 210–15 and listening to your body, 229–32 mood as indicator of recovery, 221–23 in Restwise app, 223–24 sport watches for monitoring, 216–18 training load, 218–21 and value of objective vs. subjective measures, 224–25 variability in response to training, 225–29 and variability in stress response, 203–5 Training Peaks, 217–18 Training Stress Score (TSS), 217–18 train low, race high paradigm, 76–78 travel, 129–31, 154, 158–59 triathletes, 223 TRIMP (training impulse score), 218 Trulia, 228 TSS (Training Stress Score), 217–18 Tuchscherer, Ryan, 8, 94–101 Tunnel Hill 100 race, 232, 255 turmeric, 253 2XU, 116 Tygart, Travis, 178 UEFA Champions League, 220–21 Ultimate Nutrition, 176 ultramarathoners, 236–37, 242 Ultra Sports Science Foundation, 51 Under Armour, 139–42, 143, 275n.2 undereating, 74–76, 194 unexplained underperformance syndrome (UUPS), 191, 200; See also overtraining syndrome United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), 178, 179, 184, 278n.13, 279n.17 United States Department of Agriculture, 282n.3 United States Ski and Snowboard Association, 203 University of Alabama at Birmingham, 48 University of Bath, 64, 72 University of California–Berkeley, 104 University of California–Davis, 51 University of California–San Francisco, 151 University of Cincinnati, 136, 137, 192 University of Colorado, 175, 176, 241, 278n.11, 284n.6 University of Florida, 33–35, 263n.2 University of Houston, 148 University of Kentucky, 111 University of Maryland, 235 University of Missouri, 93 University of Montana, 70 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 74 University of Oxford, 38 University of Pennsylvania, 145 University of South Denmark, 244 University of Texas, 59 University of Toledo, 240 University of Toronto Mississauga, 134 University of Tulsa, 230 University of Virginia, 151 University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, 189, 197 University of Wisconsin–Madison, 221 urine, color of, 50 USADA, See United States Anti-Doping Agency Usana Health Sciences, 165 US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, 47 USA Track & Field, 165 US Half Marathon Championships, 186 US Pan American Games Marathon, 230 US Pharmacopeia (USP), 179 USPlabs, 180, 280n.25 UUPS (unexplained underperformance syndrome), 191, 200; See also overtraining syndrome V16 Energy, 167, 168 Veasey, Sigrid, 145 Vencill, Kicker, 176, 278n.12 Viagra, 179 vibration, as recovery modality, 5–6 Vidyarthi, Jay, 133–34 vinotherapy, 7 Viola, Rich, 228 Vitamania (Price), 183 vitamin D, 277n.1 vitamins, 254, 276–77n.1 VO2 max, 18 VO2 prime energy bars, 167, 168 Vonn, Lindsey, 155 Vuelta a España, 278n.11 WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), 177, 279n.13 Wager, Tor, 241, 284n.6 Walker, Matthew P., 147 walking, relaxation with, 128–29 Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 54 Wardian, Michael, 130–31, 209–10, 274n.6, 282n.2 warm-down, 120 Warner, David, 119 Washington, D.C., 9, 238 Washington Post, 237 Washington Redskins, 82 water intoxication (hyponatremia), 45–47, 49, 54 Waterlogged (Noakes), 264n.15 water quotas, 54 Watson program, 205, 232 Wegerif, Simon, 216 Weider, Joe, 171 weight, body, 42–53, 194 weight training, 29 Welker, Wes, 2 Well-Built Triathlete, The (Dixon), 227 Western States Endurance Run, 231–32, 236, 242–43 West Virginia University, 136, 200, 225 whey protein products, 279n.20 white blood cell counts, 206 White House Medical Unit, 84 whole body cryotherapy, 93–101 Wilke, Jan, 113–15 Williams, Michael, 267n.3 Willoughby, Darryn, 98–99 wine-related therapies (vinotherapy), 7 WOD, See workout of the day Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), 135, 151 Women’s Tennis Association, 165 workout of the day (WOD), 63, 164, 270n.11 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), 177, 279n.13 World Cup (skiing), 155, 244 world hour record, cycling, 137–38, 274n.11 World Marathon Challenge, 130–31, 274n.7 “worried well,” medical tests for, 212 Yamauchi, Toshima, 93, 271n.19 Zatkoff, Jeff, 94 Zoot, 115–16 Copyright © 2019 by Christie Aschwanden All rights reserved First Edition For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
by Devon Price
Published 4 Apr 2022

Their repetitive rituals, seemingly close-knit social bonds, and ironclad rules about who is “good” and who is “bad” appeal to isolated people who yearn for connection and structure. I’ve spoken to a wide array of masked Autistic adults, and over a dozen have shared stories with me of belonging to fringe religious communities, conspiracy theory groups, multilevel marketing schemes, and other high control organizations. There isn’t any empirical research I can find that documents just how prevalent this is for our population. However, recent research by Griffiths and colleagues (2019) does describe Autistic adults as having an elevated vulnerability to financial exploitation, domestic violence, relational abuse, and emotional manipulation.[43] These are the precise qualities that define cults—and they’re part of what makes such spaces alluring to us.

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In the list below I’ve listed a few attributes common to high-control groups, which were originally observed by psychiatrist Robert Lifton in his classic text, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.[47] Lifton’s research focused on manipulation techniques pushed on political prisoners and prisoners of war, but subsequent work has found similar processes being invoked by American extremist groups,[48] as well as groups that might not qualify fully as cults but still exert a strong pull on their members, such as many evangelical faith communities.[49] Abusive, manipulative dynamics appear on a smaller scale in multilevel marketing schemes,[50] exploitative workplaces, and even communities that pride themselves on being progressive bastions of free thought, such as academia.[51] It’s important for Autistic people to be aware of the warning signs of psychological manipulation, because we are at an elevated risk of being targeted by organizations (and even informal social groups) that employ such methods.

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The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society. Boston: Beacon Press. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 48 Dawson, L. L. (2006). Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements. Vol. 71. Oxford: Oxford University Press. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 49 https://www.huffpost.com/​entry/​multilevel-marketing-companies-mlms-cults-similarities_l_5d49f8c2e4b09e72973df3d3. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 50 See Karen Kelskey’s TedX Talk “Academia Is a Cult” for a description of abusive patterns in academic programs, particularly graduate programs that exploit students’ labor: https://www.youtube.com/​watch?

Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken in and What We Can Do About It
by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris
Published 10 Jul 2023

In reality, some is being stolen by the operators, some is paid to other investors as “profits,” and the rest is held in reserve to pay for future withdrawals so the scam can continue. Most Ponzi schemes follow the same script. The scammer promises an unusually high and consistent monthly or quarterly return and describes the investment principal as completely safe from loss. Eventually, all such schemes—from multilevel marketing organizations to gifting clubs to phony investment funds—run out of new investors/victims, and those who join last lose all their money.5 Variants of the scheme named after Ponzi have since been perpetrated over and over throughout the world. It should go without saying that no investment pays a guaranteed, consistent return remotely approaching 5 percent per month (which works out to almost 80 percent per year), nor is any investment completely safe from losses.

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Teachers laugh about the Doonesbury comic in which a professor is dismayed to realize that his students will unquestioningly scribble down whatever he says, no matter how outrageous it becomes. Cult leaders would see this cartoon as a recipe for success.9 Keith Raniere was the founder of NXIVM, a multilevel marketing organization that offered self-improvement courses but became infamous for enticing women into master-slave relationships and branding their bodies with a special logo. He proclaimed himself the smartest person in the world, so anyone willing to follow him would already regard him with awe.

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Similar schemes were carried out before Ponzi, and indeed described in fiction, but his was the largest—$15 million in 1920 dollars, equivalent to about $220 million as of this writing—and the most publicized, so it became a template for all later cons of its nature, even though many of them had important differences. 5. In multilevel marketing organizations, entrepreneurs recruit other entrepreneurs to sell for them and pay a portion of their proceeds up the chain, all the way to the founder(s). Gifting Tables, a quintessential gifting club pyramid scheme that ran in Connecticut, was investigated by the US government and resulted in several convictions [https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/two-guilford-women-sentenced-federal-prison-overseeing-gifting-tables-pyramid-scheme]. 6.

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
by Adrian Hon
Published 14 Sep 2022

Accordingly, the agency announced that at 10 a.m. eastern standard time on December 5, 2009, it would place ten eight-foot moored red balloons across the continental United States, and the first team to locate them all would win forty thousand dollars. DARPA was prepared to deploy the balloons for two days, but in the end, it only took nine hours for MIT’s team to win.61 Their strategy? A multilevel marketing technique that incentivised people to relay sightings to their team by distributing winnings not only to a balloon sighter ($2000) but to the person who invited the sighter ($1000) and whoever invited them ($500), and on and on. Not all of DARPA’s ideas come to fruition. Announced in 2012, the agency’s Plan X was intended to make deploying cyberwarfare weapons as easy as playing World of Warcraft, especially for nontechnically minded soldiers and commanders.62 Program manager Dan Roelker told Wired, “Say you’re playing World of Warcraft, and you’ve got this type of sword, +5 or whatever.

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The multiple levels of gamification in this scenario are dizzying to grasp, especially when you consider that merchandise drops already have a whiff of lotteries about them, but most retailers don’t draw such direct comparisons to games. Instead, it’s often consumers who treat consumption like a game, with retailers only too happy to oblige. Take the LuLaRoe multilevel marketing company, which earns money by selling clothes to its “consultants,” who sell them on to shoppers.27 Unlike normal retailers, consultants can’t order specific items, as Stephanie McNeal of BuzzFeed reported: While consultants can place orders for styles and sizes of clothes, they never know which prints they will get until they open the box, and no two consultants get the same mix.

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When the company announces the launch of a new style, design, or color, LuLa fanatics comb through the groups to find the lucky consultant who can sell it to them.28 Like gacha mechanics in video games, the semirandomised contents of the boxes encourage consultants to keep buying in pursuit of the most desirable prints, which then elicits yet another treasure hunt, this time by customers. The difference is that gachapon and loot boxes usually cost a few dollars each, while LuLaRoe consultants have to spend $499 to get started, with many of their orders running into thousands of dollars.29 Then there are the broader similarities between games and multilevel marketing schemes, like LuLaRoe’s giveaways and complex system of leadership tiers and “leadership pool” points that determine consultants’ compensation.30 Plenty of retailers reward customer loyalty, but few systems are as sophisticated or demanding as Starbucks’s reward app, which goes far beyond the usual “collect ten stamps for a free coffee” card with its personalised, time-sensitive Star Dashes and Bonus Star Challenges.

Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away
by Julien Saunders and Kiersten Saunders
Published 13 Jun 2022

If a friend sends you an invitation to meet up for drinks and casually suggests starting an investment club because there’s a lot of money to be made investing in hot stocks, we want you to say, “Why would I do that?” You now know that for average investors stock picking is a fool’s game and it’s much wiser to invest in a wide selection of funds than relying on faulty intel to hand select a few. When a family member corners you at a BBQ, starts showing you receipts from their latest multilevel-marketing business, and invites you to the business opportunity of a lifetime, we want you to say, “Why would I do that?” You now know that you can take that same entry-level fee they’re asking you to pay and use it to invest in an index fund where it is much more likely to produce a positive return without your lifting a finger or potentially dragging someone else into the fold.

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See also expenses loneliness, overcoming, 18 low-wage workers, 76 Lyft, 131 M m1finance.com, 131 market downturns, 98–99, 173–74 marriage average length of, 75 challenges faced in, 201 and divorces, 75, 199, 201, 234 time to devote to, 35 See also couples matching by employers, 156, 176 McKinsey study on automation threat, 126 median wealth prediction for Black individuals, 3, 53–54 media portrayals of wealth, 33–34, 221 meetups, 218–19 mercari.com, 135 meritocracy, myth of, 28 middle class, 50 Middle personality type Big 3 downplayed by, 57, 59–60 blind optimism practiced by, 62–63 characteristics of, 50–52 and compound interest, 68 and Fast Spenders personality type, 50, 51, 61 and Financially Insecure personality type, 50, 51 and lifestyle inflation, 61 meaning of “freedom” for, 69 memories of financial insecurity, 51, 60–61 possessions of, 59 and struggles with retirement savings, 51, 63 taste preferences of, 61 millennials, 76, 144 millionaires FIRE movement and Black, 29 and market boom of 2020, 232 meetups of, 219–20 status as milestone, 233 mindset, 103–20 and absence of certainty, 111, 114–16 and confidence, 112–13 and courage, 108, 111, 112–14, 117–18 and financial literacy, 108–11 rules and richuals for, 118–20 and true income potential, 107 Money on the Table (video series), 12 money’s ability to work harder than you can belief in, 65 and purchasing power of wages, 172–73 and stealth wealth, 38 transitioning to, 62 value of acknowledging, 228 moral code, following, 172 mortgage and debt reduction methods, 82 paying off, 6 refinancing, 57 multilevel-marketing businesses, 170 mutual funds about, 159–60 active management of, 160, 166 educated guesses at heart of, 160 fees associated with, 163–64, 165–66 index funds compared to, 162 underperformance of, 166 See also 401(k)s; index funds N Nasdaq index, 161 National Basketball Association, 162 National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 77 needs, basic, 56–60 negativity, 48 nerdwallet.com, 131 net worth declining, 54 and income, 54–55 stating publicly, 220 NFTs (non-fungible tokens), 129 Notorious B.I.G., 198 O opportunities, evaluating, 129–30, 129 oppression, exposure to, 210 optimism blind, 62–63, 158 as motivator for difficult tasks, 194 options trading, 114 Orman, Suze, 155 ourrichjourney.com, 215 P parenthood and childcare costs, 30 uncertainty experienced in, 115 and work-life balance, 30 parents, supporting aging, 10, 70 passive income, 22, 65 paycheck to paycheck, living, 47, 77–78 paying yourself first, 118 PDFs, selling, 136 personality types, financial, 46–52 Fast Spenders type, 48–50, 51, 52, 61, 69 Financially Insecure type, 46–48, 50, 51, 52, 69, 233 the Middle type, 50–52 Pew Research Center, 36, 172–73 phones, faux connectedness from, 25 Playing with FIRE (documentary), 47 The Plug (Dorsey), 133 podcasts and Jannese’s success story, 124 learning about FI through, 217–18 and preferences of audiences, 145 thepointsguy.com, 131 Popcorn Finance (Browning), 218 poshmark.com, 135 positivity, pressure to sustain, 43 poverty and automation threat to employment, 126 cycle of, 47, 234 principles of cashing out, 36–41 embracing stealth wealth, 37–39 prioritizing purpose and community, 40–41 recognizing the Black tax, 39–40 “progress trap,” 64 public.com, 131 public health, negative impacts of work on, 31–32 purchasing power, impact of inflation on, 173 Purple, 91–94, 95 purpose(s) of income, 44–73 asking better questions about, 120 and Black buying power, 52–55 and breaking the consumerism cycle, 45 and financial personality types, 46–52 flexibility, 56, 60–65 freedom, 56, 56, 68–71 independence, 56, 65–68 lack of, 51–52 and retirement, 54–55 rules and richuals for, 72–73 security, 56–60, 56 and sinking funds, 119 Q quality of life, financial components of, 9 questions, asking better, 119–20 R racism, 39–40 “Raising a Family Index” (RAFI), 30 Ramsey, Dave, 155 Ray, Ola, 101–2 real estate agents, 61 real estate investing of authors, 6, 11, 87–88, 142, 143 income from, 22, 86 Kendra’s success story, 85, 86–87 1 percent rule in, 87 “Reality Check: Paycheck-to-Paycheck,” 77 reasons for cashing out freedom from burnout, 31–33 prioritizing family life, 29–30 safety from corporate change, 27–28 success on your terms, 28–29 time to do what you love, 25–26 regret/sacrifice, moments of, 100, 200–201 religious faith, 36–37 restaurants, dining in, 57 retirement difficulty saving for, 59 income’s role in preparing for, 55 lack of successful examples of, 22 and Middle personality type, 51 and pending crisis, 210 See also retirement accounts retirement accounts IRAs (individual retirement accounts), 94, 114 and matching by employers, 156, 176 maxing out, 94, 168 procrastinating on, 154–55 of self-employed, 176 See also 401(k)s; index funds rewarding yourself, 81–82 Rice, Bradley, 212 “richuals” (term), 17 ride-sharing companies, 131 risk managing feelings of, 116 and the myth of full confidence, 113–14 and uncertainty, 116 Rock, Chris, 33 role models, lack of relatable, 68 rounding-up programs at banks, 118–19 S S&P 500 index fund, 161, 163, 173, 230 sacrifice/regret, moments of, 100, 200–201 saving money/savings authors’ rate of, 11 conventional approach to, 226–27 conversations about, 193–94 and labeling people as “savers,” 191 lessons passed to children on, 226–27 low levels of, 4, 45 and Middle personality type, 50 reframing practice of, 193–94 sacrifices made for, 200–201 security as first purpose of income, 56–60, 56 self-care, 32 self-defeatist language, 15 self-doubt, overcoming, 18, 111 self-employment and retirement accounts, 176 self-reliance, 64–65 selling, 137–40 shame/shaming for buying preferences, 61 and defensiveness, 195 overcoming, 18 sharing, 213–14 Shopify, 137 short-term wants/needs, 63 sinking funds, 119 skills, cultivating marketable, 83, 87, 94, 99, 147 Skillshare, 137 slavery, legacy of, 3 snowball method to paying off debt, 80–81, 81 social issues, ability to engage with, 35 social media platforms and content creators, 141–45 FI community on, 216–17, 220–21 gurus/celebrity advisers on, 223 sharing strengths/wins on, 90 Souffrant, Jamila, 217 spending.

The Wealth Dragon Way: The Why, the When and the How to Become Infinitely Wealthy
by John Lee
Published 13 Apr 2015

Then (if possible and ideally) you teach others how to offer it to even more people and charge them a licensing fee that they pay to you for permission to use or do it. And bingo! You have franchised yourself. This strategy is so old and so powerful that many people have used—and even abused—it. In the United States in the 1990s there was a particularly aggressive spate of multilevel marketing schemes that sold people on the profits that could be made from a business franchise without properly educating them on how to run that business. Many companies came under fire for selling expensive franchises (in terms of investment in product inventory and training seminars) in schemes that were really nothing more than a way for the people higher up in the chain to offload a huge amount of inventory and make large commissions on educational material.

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Smith, Adam Snapchat Social media Spending money to make money Spiegel, Evan Stallone, Sylvester Strauss-Kahn, Dominique Strength Sugar, Alan Sun Tzu Surveyors Teaching Teamwork approach Tenant problems Think and Grow Rich (Hill) Thinking big Thomas, Eric Time Tolle, Ekhart Trump, Donald Truths. See Undesirable truths Twain, Mark Undesirable truths education failure friendship frugality greed investments jobs money mortgages overview of pensions risk saving time work United States flipping property in higher education in multilevel marketing schemes repossession in Valuation of property Value, vs. cost Value investing Value of money Van Gogh, Vincent Visualization boards Vujicic, Nick Wages Wales, dragon national emblem WamBamBoo.com Warhol, Andy Wealth definition of fear as roadblock to get-rich-quick schemes hard work and monetary wealth vs. moral wealth more money mindset negative people as roadblock to parallel universe perspective rat race trap as roadblock to strategy for building undesirable truths about Wealth Dragons first international tour founding of significance of name top principles of Wealth education Wealth strategy asset building business creation importance of infinite wealth achievement path overview of steps passive income generation See also Property investment Wealthy people, characteristics of Wilde, Oscar Williamson, Marianne Without Risk There’s No Reward (Mayer) Wong, Annika Wong, Vincent auctions Bruce Lee influence celebrity lifestyles daughter’s egg business education failure family background and childhood fear financial abundance financial experts hard work learning curve lease options lotteries luck making commitment to success moral obligation to be wealthy negative people off-plan property investments people skills property investment advantages property investment beginnings property investment deal making tips property investment experiences property investment learning curve rat race trap recessions as opportunity to make money relationship with John Lee taking action unglamorous nature of property investing Wealth Dragon origins wealth journey of Work, finding passion for.

5 Day Weekend: Freedom to Make Your Life and Work Rich With Purpose
by Nik Halik and Garrett B. Gunderson
Published 5 Mar 2018

When it comes to broadcasting your podcast, you may want to include the podcast in your Google profile. Populate all your free social media profiles and feature links to your podcast. Include the show’s notes or the main summary points. On Facebook, link to your podcast and include the show’s notes in a status update. Direct Sales/Network Marketing Network marketing, or multilevel marketing (MLM), certainly isn’t for everyone, but it can be a fantastic source of supplemental income, with the opportunity of becoming a very lucrative full-time income. The major benefits of network marketing are the minimal up-front investment and the opportunity for leveraged income in the form of override commissions on everything sold by the people you recruit to your business.

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Keohohou, Nicki Kets de Vries, Manfred keystone habits Kiyosaki, Robert Komisar, Randy Kroc, Ray L labor markets, technology’s transformation of Lavie, Peretz Lemony Snicket Lending Club leverage, and Cash Flow Insurance and content and creating greater returns and credit scores and current assets and entrepreneurship and real estate investments liabilities, and insurance vs. debt liberated entrepreneurs life boards, creating life insurance, combining with long-term care insurance as protective expense whole life insurance lifestyle, and cash flow cutting expenses of and freedom and Growth investment strategies and loan debt Linchpin (Godin) LinkedIn liquidity, and Cash Flow Insurance of checking and savings accounts and economic cycles and failure of conventional investments of Growth investments and real estate investments and reducing debt and tax lien certificates Litecoin “Live Like You Were Dying” (song) Living Wealthy Accounts LLCs loads, on mutual funds loans, and Cash Flow Index and credit scores and economic cycles for real estate investments restructuring from retirement plans against whole life insurance policies See also debt location, and real estate investments and storage unit construction Loehr, Jim long-term care insurance Loopnet Lyft, as entrepreneurial opportunity Lynch, Peter M Mackay, Harvey “mailbox money” myth maintenance, and storage units Mandela, Nelson Marcus Aurelius market conditions, and business startup investments and real estate investments market cycles See also economic cycles market demand, and entrepreneurial opportunities Mastermind Principle materialism, and the American dream and simplicity Maxwell, John McCain, John McCoy, Dan meals, as tax deduction meaning, and generosity medical insurance, as protective expense Melish, Stephanie mental capital mental energy mentors, and building your inner circle microcredit Mill, John Stuart mindfulness mindset, of abundance changing components of a strong and control and debt and hiring employees and limitations and Living Wealthy Accounts and quitting your job and real estate investments and resourcefulness strengthening mineral rights mobile apps, as entrepreneurial opportunity Moffat, Kyle Momentum investments, and active vs. passive income streams business startups cryptocurrencies description of gold and silver speculation and Growth investment strategies investing in people and Passive Income Ratio private equity investments purchasing distressed businesses understanding financial reports Monero monetary policies, and economic cycles moneylenders money managers fees money mastery Moody, D. L. Morley, Christopher morning routines mortgage debt, and cash flow and debts vs. liabilities and real estate investments restructuring mountain climbing multi-family units, advantages in purchasing multilevel marketing (MLM). See network marketing multi-policy insurance discounts Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Munger, Charlie Musicians Institute N Napoleon Bonaparte National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse Netflix, network marketing, as entrepreneurial opportunity Newton, Isaac nutrition, and energy amplification O Olivier, Laurence online calculators, for ROI on real estate investments online entrepreneurial opportunities opportunity cost, and lifestyle (consumptive) expenses options trading.

Lying for Money: How Fraud Makes the World Go Round
by Daniel Davies
Published 14 Jul 2018

Of course, legal legitimacy is not everything; for every Tupperware in the world of multilevel sales, there is an Amway – a cleaning products company which has passed every formal investigation and been classed as not a pyramid, but which has still left huge numbers of people (many of whom seem to have started websites) feeling badly treated by the friends and relatives who brought them into the circle. This is one of the nastier properties of both pyramid schemes and legal multilevel marketing companies – because they tend to spread through affinity groups, they can develop an almost cult-like atmosphere, in which belief in the economic validity of the scheme becomes a condition of continued group membership, and unbelievers are ‘frozen out’. There are some success stories of multilevel marketing, but in general it does not seem to be a field that attracts many quiet and saintly types. Getting out of hand The thing that makes pyramid schemes crash is a crucial feature of any fraud which persists longer than a short-term hit-and-run long firm – they snowball.

The Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Success Stories of Artists, Inventors, and Entrepreneurs
by Steinberg, Don
Published 14 Aug 2012

Alcohol (prohibited as a reward) Contests (entry fees, prize money, within your project to encourage support, etc) Cosmetics Coupons, discounts, and cash-value gift cards Drugs, druglike substances, drug paraphernalia, tobacco, etc. Electronic surveillance equipment Energy drinks Financial incentives (ownership, share of profits, repayment/loans, etc.) Firearms, weapons, and knives Health, medical, and safety-related products Multilevel marketing and pyramid programs Nutritional supplements Offensive material (hate speech, inappropriate content, etc.) Projects endorsing or opposing a political candidate Pornographic material Promoting or glorifying acts of violence Raffles, lotteries, and sweepstakes Real estate Self-help books, DVDs, CDs, etc.

Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 1 Jun 2009

If you aren’t ready to accept, then how can the universe give you anything you want?” Eileen’s holding today’s meeting in her apartment, a nondescript garden condominium outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. I found her while researching former Amway sales representatives for what I thought was going to be a chapter in this book on multilevel marketing networks. But Eileen’s not interested in talking about her past failures as a Silver Producer level Amway distributor. She’s dedicated to sharing her newest passion, free of charge, with the women who responded to her Internet notice for practitioners of The Secret—the latest and greatest “quantum-based” self-improvement system known to humankind, according to its practitioners and promoters—who are often the very same people.

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Top-shelf self-help gurus—Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus author John Gray, Chicken Soup founder Jack Canfield, Conversations with God creator Neale Donald Walsch—get new life pumped into their waning careers, while the new self-help brand gains instant credibility from their participation. As if in full disclosure, they are all willing to teach the fine arts of logrolling and bootstrapping to anyone who will listen and pay. Secret is as Secret does. While The Secret isn’t itself a multilevel marketing scheme (or MLM), it has become the sales pitch and rationale for many others. Three of The Secret’s best-known officially sanctioned self-help gurus, Canfield, Bob Proctor, and Michael Beckwith, teamed up on a Secret-inspired get-rich MLM called the Science of Getting Rich. For $1,995, anyone can join.

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
by Charles Eisenstein
Published 11 Jul 2011

What is the gambit?” We instantly recognize any hypocrisy, such as “donations” that are in fact mandatory. Our suspicions are often well justified. Too many religious cults, spiritual movements, and multilevel marketing organizations end up with the people at the top getting rich, and we wonder, “Is this what it was about all along?” Bill Kauth was trying to find a way to tap into the considerable dynamism of multilevel marketing while eliminating the “greed factor,” and he says income topping was the only thing that showed any promise. The suspicion of any good thing that “it’s actually all about someone trying to profit from me” has an internal counterpart, when we question our own motives.

Team Human
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 22 Jan 2019

A new spirit of holism was emerging in the West, reflected in the lyrics of rock music, the spread of meditation and yoga centers, and the popularity of Buddhism and other Eastern religions. It appeared to herald a new age. But all of these spiritual systems were being interpreted in the American context of consumerism. Herbs, seminars, and therapies were distributed through multilevel marketing schemes and advertised as turnkey solutions to all of life’s woes. The resulting New Age movement stressed individual enlightenment over communal health. It was the same old personal salvation wine, only in California chardonnay bottles. The social justice agenda of the antiwar and civil rights movements was repackaged as the stridently individualistic self-help movement.

Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments
by Michael Batnick
Published 21 May 2018

“I'm the most persistent person you will ever meet.”9 Other companies that landed in Ackman's crosshairs were MBIA Inc., Target, Sears, Valeant, and J. C. Penney. But perhaps no investor and no company will ever be more joined at the hip than his bet against Herbalife. If you Google “Bill Ackman Herbalife,” you get 180,000 results. Ackman's storied battle with the multilevel marketing company has been in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal dozens of times, it's been written about in Fortune, the New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. Joe Nocera wrote about Ackman's long and drawn out battle with MBIA Inc. in the New York Times: But for sheer, obsessive doggedness, nothing he has ever done can compare with his pursuit of a company called MBIA Inc.

Wild Ride: Inside Uber's Quest for World Domination
by Adam Lashinsky
Published 31 Mar 2017

“A lot of entrepreneurs start out that way. It comes from an insecurity. Like maybe you aren’t making ends meet and you need to act tough to make it through.” Some of Kalanick’s youthful jobs prepared him for the executive he’d become. He sold knives, for example, through a company that essentially was a multilevel marketing scheme. “You start with your mom and your friends and sell their moms knives, and then you get referrals as part of the sale, and then you just start working it.” For the future engineer, the experience was revelatory. “Engineers judge sales. They think it’s cheesy and not grounded. But it’s also storytelling.

Dawn of the Code War: America's Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat
by John P. Carlin and Garrett M. Graff
Published 15 Oct 2018

In our work space at the US attorney’s office, we relied on computers with WordPerfect, which elicited a lot of office jokes about Microsoft and the Justice Department’s groundbreaking antitrust case against the technology giant that was then working its way slowly through the courts. The tax unit where I was assigned was in the midst of its own massive case, investigating a multilevel marketing scheme known as the Institute of Global Prosperity, which ran informational seminars and sold people “research” on how to avoid paying taxes. It offered all manner of false and discredited materials that tried to convince its victims that if they filled out a few forms, they could live tax-free for life.

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Grokster, Ltd., 66 Metropolitan Area Exchanges, 39 Micrel Semiconductor, 259 Microsoft, 75, 120, 159, 182, 293, 296 Microsoft Windows Terminal Services, 193 al-Mihdhar, Khalid, 9 Military Critical Technologies List, 104 MILNET, 86 Mimikatz, 235–236 Minecraft (video game), 391 Ministry of State Security (China), 166 Mirai botnet, 391, 396 Mitnick, Kevin, 83–84, 98, 98n Moberly, Kevin, 129 mobile games, as attack vectors, 322 Monaco, Lisa, 134, 138, 141, 146, 233, 241, 384–385; as assistant attorney general for national security, 187, 189–191; bubble chart and, 325; data security discussions convened by, 364; NCIJTF and, 137; on need for cyberthreat response capability, 328; on NSCS, 200; Russia response and, 383; as White House homeland security advisor, 250–251, 269, 325, 327, 327n, 330–331, 333 money mules, 287 Monroe, Jana, 141 MOONLIGHT MAZE, 103–106 Morell, Michael, 331 Morris, Robert T., Jr., 91–95 Morris Worm, 59, 91–95, 150 Motorola, 147 MSUpdater, 195 Mudge, 124 Mueller, Robert, 46–47, 122, 127, 138, 187, 191, 201, 280–282, 384, 398, 401–402; career of, 136; CCIPS and, 76–77; cybersecurity agreement proposal, 175–176; FBI post-9/11 evolution and, 139–140, 142; NCIJTF and, 137; Pittsburgh cybersecurity speech, 153–154; public speaking, 150 Mughal, Waseem, 7 Mularski, J. Keith, 120–122, 151, 202, 295, 296, 299, 300 Mullaney, Michael, 22 Mullen, Mike, 178 multilevel marketing schemes, 75 Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008, 22, 189 Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami (Islamic Supporters Forum) (website), 6 Nakashima, Ellen, 366 naming and shaming, 271 Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation, 130 Napolitano, Janet, 175, 176 Napster, 65–66 Nasdaq stock market hack, 190, 283–284 National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), 136, 326, 373 National Crime Agency (UK), 296 National CSS Inc., 84 National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), 150–151, 153 National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), 137, 152, 156, 175, 205 National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, 151, 175, 283 National Economic Council, 233 National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), 101, 141 national intelligence, 157 National Intelligence Council (NIC), 327, 389–390 National Intelligence Estimates, 48, 242 “National Policy on Telecommunications and Automated Information Systems Security” (NSDD-145), 86 National Research Council (Canada), 272n National Security Agency (NSA), 37, 84, 91, 101, 164; cyber warfare initiative, 154; cybersecurity authority, 175–176; intelligence community reforms and, 157 National Security Branch (FBI), 190 National Security Council, 174, 175, 191, 210, 344, 364; cyber issues and, 325, 327; Deputies Committee, 268; Sony hack meetings, 332 national security cyber specialist (NSCS), 200, 209, 271 National Security Division (NSD), 11, 13, 56, 172; CaseTrack and, 22; creation of, 188–189; cyber issues and, 190–192; new threats and, 191; Syrian Electronic Army case and, 379.

The Six-Figure Second Income: How to Start and Grow a Successful Online Business Without Quitting Your Day Job
by David Lindahl and Jonathan Rozek
Published 4 Aug 2010

CHAPTER 1 You CAN Get Rich—But Yes, There Is a Catch This book is about how you can make a very substantial income—a full-time income—by spending only bits and pieces of your time on the side. You don’t need to take any leaps of faith and quit your day job, nor do you need to sign up for any membership clubs or multilevel-marketing schemes. You simply can follow my tested-and-proven advice and take one baby-step after the next until you arrive at your financial destination. If that sounds too good to be true, you’re right. There is indeed a catch, and it’s a big one: To be successful in building an online business, you must ignore a lot of conventional wisdom and advice.

I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories From the Edge of 50
by Annabelle Gurwitch
Published 6 Mar 2014

*Ironically, when the senders of chain mail went to the post office instead of the Internet, far fewer annoying missives were sent; at least it took some effort and the cost of a stamp to send that crap. *In February 2012, billionaire hedge-fund managers Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb entered into a billion-dollar wager on whether Herbalife is a pyramid scheme or a multilevel marketing business. *Statistics sadly report that is the most important determinant of success, though my husband and I like to say we’ve purposely middled out so at least he doesn’t have to worry about not doing as well as us, which can be a burden, too. *I resent the word “juggling” almost as much as I hate the word “entitlements.”

Give People Money
by Annie Lowrey
Published 10 Jul 2018

“We wanted to invite the dozen most interesting women in Anchorage today, and since they were busy, we’re good here,” joked a genial guy named Paul, who was running the focus group for Chris Hughes’s Economic Security Project. The women went around the room to introduce themselves: an adoptive mother, a truck driver, a multilevel marketing scheme promoter, a home day care operator, a fisherwoman, a nonprofit worker. He then asked all of them to describe how things were going in the state using a word they would use to describe the weather. Most picked “cloudy,” citing the local problems with drug and alcohol abuse, economic hardship, and political strife.

Dead Companies Walking
by Scott Fearon
Published 10 Nov 2014

When you get down to it, Shaman and her subsequent ventures were just plain old failures, like the vast majority of the other companies I write about in this book. But when it comes to the wider alternative health products industry, I’m afraid Lisa is one of the few honest—if misguided—brokers. In 1993, I paid a visit to Herbalife (stock symbol: HLF), the granddaddy of multilevel marketing, or MLM, companies. Most MLM outfits, like Herbalife, are in the vitamin or natural remedy business. A large amount of them are based in Utah, which has led some people to offer a new meaning for the MLM acronym: Mormons Losing Money. Herbalife’s headquarters are not in Utah, though. At the time of my visit, they were in a shiny glass high-rise off the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, directly beneath the flight path of LAX.

Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way
by Tanja Hester
Published 12 Feb 2019

Work a Side Hustle Side hustles have grown more common in recent years as younger people especially find them necessary to make ends meet with their student loan debt burdens and high rents in big cities. But side hustles can work for anyone who wants to earn more, assuming you choose one that’s truly lucrative. Quite a few multilevel marketing schemes out there prey on folks who are eager to make a little extra on the side, and they often result in those people losing money. A good rule to follow: If you’re spending large amounts of money upfront or to keep it going, it’s probably not helping you reach your goals. For 10 years, I taught yoga and spin classes as my side hustle.

Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology
by Jess Zimmerman
Published 9 Mar 2021

For the sake of argument, though, let’s say it was the time I asked him for a quarter. He’d been unemployed for much of the year we’d been together; he’d moved to DC for a job, but quit when the leadership turned out to be too hard to deal with, and then gotten another job and quit that too. He’d had the idea that he would instead get rich selling weight-loss products for a multilevel marketing scheme, and spent several hundred dollars on stock before giving that up too. Now, he wanted to get a certification in entry-level computer technology, while I continued paying the rent. (I had been working three part-time jobs, mostly retail, when we started living together, although I’d left some of them to finish my senior year of college.)

Mastering Blockchain: Unlocking the Power of Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts
by Lorne Lantz and Daniel Cawrey
Published 8 Dec 2020

GAW Miners also sold customers “virtual miners,” or “Hashlets,” for future mining profits, which to the SEC appeared like securities. In 2018, Garza was sentenced to 21 months in prison for wire fraud. Mark Scott Acted as an attorney for OneCoin, a Ponzi scheme that generated billions in revenue. Scott was responsible for laundering $400 million of revenue through tax havens. OneCoin was a multilevel marketing operation that has seen prosecutions globally over false claims of its private blockchain-based cryptocurrency. Sentencing is still ongoing. Block.One Operated an unregistered securities offering via an ICO from June 2017 to June 2018. During that time the SEC released its DAO report, which covered a previous unregistered security offering in the cryptocurrency space as guidance for operators.

How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World
by Dambisa Moyo
Published 3 May 2021

In July 2018, food group Nestlé was called to task by an activist investor, Third Point Management’s Dan Loeb, who accused the company of being “insular, complacent, and overly bureaucratic” and of “missing too many trends.” He proposed the company sell assets in noncore areas such as frozen foods and confectionary. Nestlé pushed back, emphasizing its decade-long record of strong shareholder returns. Even more famous is the tussle between Pershing Square activist Bill Ackman and Herbalife, the multilevel marketing company. Ackman took a short position on the stock and launched an aggressive public campaign, claiming that the company was a predatory pyramid scheme and arguing that its value would fall to zero. The revelation of Ackman’s short position in 2012 prompted Herbalife CEO Michael Johnson to call up business news channel CNBC to defend the company and attack Ackman, kicking off a five-year battle.

Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream
by Alissa Quart
Published 14 Mar 2023

When I mountain bike, I focus on the trail, so I don’t crash. . . . These activities force me to have a single focus on what I’m doing right now. . . . So, when I am at the office, I can focus my efforts to be more productive and to be direct and decisive in my work.” He was not interviewed, of course, about what working for a multilevel marketing, or MLM, company might be doing to MLM workers having to sell Nu Skin (as anyone who has worked in selling products in this way can attest, a morning meditation isn’t enough to make it any less stressful). All this is from Beck Bamberger, “8 CEOs on Their Mindfulness Practices,” Fast Company, October 14, 2019, https://www.fastcompany.com/90416477/8-ceos-on-their-mindfulness-practices.

The Thyroid Diet
by Mary J. Shomon
Published 31 Aug 2004

Some have undergone various studies and trials, and others have been in use for centuries as part of traditional Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic remedies. There are also some that are touted mainly on the basis of anecdotal evidence. And then there is the constant battery of hype, with never-ending infomercials, bus stop advertisements, magazine and newspaper ads, and multilevel marketers trying to sell you the latest miracle diet supplement—the one that will finally melt the pounds off while you sleep, or allow you to eat anything and still lose weight, or rev up your metabolism and burn 50% more fat! I’ll let you in on a big secret. That miracle diet supplement doesn’t exist.

How Medicine Works and When It Doesn't: Learning Who to Trust to Get and Stay Healthy
by F. Perry Wilson
Published 24 Jan 2023

The third way to avoid motivated reasoning is to adopt the strategy of a Fortune 500 company and outsource. It can be hard to recognize motivated reasoning in yourself, but it is actually fairly easy to recognize in others. I’m sure you’ve had a friend or relative tell you how they just know they’ll strike it rich in that multilevel marketing company or that a certain diet will help them shed those pounds, and you smile and nod, and think, Sure, good luck with that. Well, you can use your friends and family to your advantage when you are making medical decisions. Bring others into your circle, share the facts with them, and then (and this is the hard part) listen to what they say, even if their conclusions don’t agree with yours.

The Trade of Queens
by Charles Stross
Published 16 Mar 2010

As Mike moved up the road, ringing doorbells and waiting, he kept a weather eye open for twitching curtains, unexpected antennae. A bored Boston grandmother at one apartment threatened to take too much interest in him, but he managed to dissuade her with the number-two pitch: was she satisfied with her current lawn-care company. (For telecommuting techies, the number-one pitch was a nonstick-bakeware multilevel marketing scheme. Anything to avoid having to actually interview anybody.) Finally he reached Miriam's doorstep. The windows were grimy, and the mailbox was threatening to overflow: good. So nobody's renting. He rang the doorbell, stood there for the requisite minute, and moved on. This was the moment of maximum danger, and his skin was crawling as he slowly walked to the next door.

We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds
by Sally Adee
Published 27 Feb 2023

Soon a hospital was built whose sole treatment was “tractoration.” Testimonials abounded: not least from bishops and clergymen, whom Perkins had slyly provided with that most ancient grift: free review samples. “I have used the tractors with success in several cases in my own family,” wrote one recipient, channeling the logic of a multilevel marketing scheme. “Since experience has proved them, so no reasoning can change the opinion.” Over time, galvanism was conscripted into a pre-existing, ever-widening gyre of pseudoscience that included Franz Mesmer’s animal magnetism, hypnosis, and electrifying wearables, variously said to be associated with earthquakes, dowsing, and volcanic activity.

Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
by Jeff Gramm
Published 23 Feb 2016

He was warning other public company management teams, “We’re watching you, and you might be next.” Later hedge fund targets would be much larger and more established companies. Einhorn accused Lehman of aggressive accounting, Loeb exposed the Yahoo! CEO for padding his resume, and Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital took on the multilevel-marketing great white whale, Herbalife, in a fight-to-the-death cage match. WHEREAS CORPORATE RAIDERS busted through gates with hostile tender offers for control and a supporting army of arbitragers, early hedge fund activism was an exercise in persuasion. The ultimate arbiters in many of these disputes were large institutional investors like CalPERS and CalSTERS.

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry
by Helaine Olen
Published 27 Dec 2012

Freedom Investment Club, Ltd., et al., Defendants. NO. C 10-01172 JW United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, 2010 U.S. Dist. In 1986, Money magazine: McGinn, 171; Richard Eisenberg, “The Beguiling Gurus of Get-Rich TV,” Money, April 1986; Richard Eisenberg, “The Mess Called MultiLevel Marketing,” Money, June 1987. and spent $280 million dollars on television ads: Julie Creswell. “When the Real Estate Game Cost $9.95,” New York Times, April 19, 2009, sec. Business, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/business/19sheets.html. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is an extended parable: Kiyosaki, Robert T., and Sharon L.

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
by Zeke Faux
Published 11 Sep 2023

“I love it,” said Hilton, sounding bored. “This is my ape,” Fallon said. He looked serious, almost grim, as he produced a printout of a cartoon ape wearing red heart sunglasses, a captain’s hat, and a Breton-striped sailor shirt. It cost him $220,000. The segment had the badly disguised bleakness of an infomercial for a multilevel-marketing company. It was hard to imagine that Fallon or Hilton had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for ape cartoons, or that their endorsement would lead anyone else to buy one. But within three months of the segment, the price of the cheapest Bored Apes rose to $410,000. Tons of other celebrities were buying them.

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories From the Frontline
by Steven K. Kapp
Published 19 Nov 2019

Over the next few years, I continued to report on ongoing autismvaccine litigation, post announcements of research participation opportunities, and investigate dodgy autism treatments and consumer scams. Subjects included OSR, an industrial chelator developed by Boyd Haley and promoted for consumption by autistic children [74], and electromagnetic radiation shielding devices touted as autism treatments by debt-ridden multilevel marketers and new-age entrepreneurs [75]. A misleading telephone solicitation provoked me to dig into the public filings of the Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation, which claimed to help autistic people, but showed little evidence of useful activity [76]. My local paper published an op-ed in which I advised readers to be skeptical of unfounded claims about autism [77].

The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime
by Mj Demarco
Published 8 Nov 2010

I remember the day when I thought $10,000 was a lot of money. It was perception and not reality. Earning $1 million in one month is possible if you make the right choices and drive the right Fastlane roads. This perception leads to better choices of action. That guy at the party? He chose a crowded road. Instead of creating a multilevel marketing company, he joined one. Instead of serving the masses through Effection, he joined the masses. Wiping the Windshield Clean Starts with Language You can expose your mindset by examining the words in your language and your thoughts. Take for example this comment made on the Fastlane Forum: “I got engaged last Friday!

Money Men: A Hot Startup, a Billion Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth
by Dan McCrum
Published 15 Jun 2022

To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader. 1A Mauritius fund 79–89, 115, 134, 250 advisors’ fees 88 Ernst & Young investigation 135 7995 transaction codes 16, 19, 42, 101 Absolute Poker 30 acai berry sellers 61 Acai Berry King see Willms, Jesse Achleitner, Paul 224, 231–2 Adyen 175 AIM market 91 Akhavan, Hamid ‘Ray’ ix, 118 and Animo Associates 278–9 and Marsalek 227, 278, 285 arrested USA 285 sentenced 304 Al Alam Solutions 245, 246, 249, 258, 272, 276–7, 301 and Allied Wallet 210 and Third-Party Acquiring 200–202, 221 rebrands as Symtric 277 unsecured loans/no income 286–7 Wirtschaftswoche on 261 Al Alawi, Kumail 69–70 Ali, Marsalek’s bribery contact 184 Alken Asset Management 119, 140 Allied Wallet 210–11, 304 Allscore Beijing, Wirecard and 250 Alphaville blog (FT) 52–3, 54, 91, 258 Camp Alphaville 52–3, 55–6, 96, 112–13 House of Wirecard series 91 and Ingenico/Wirecard 108 ‘Rabble’ 54, 96 Schillings on 119 Anderson, Pamela 223 Angermayer, Christian 198–9, 239 Animo Associates, Wickford 278–9, 283–4 APG Protection 255, 257n Arafat, Yasser 266 Ardiss, Katherine, and 1A/Hermes deal 83–4 Ashazi Services, Bahrain 67–71, 72–7 Asian Internet Gaming conference 57–8 Assion, Rüdiger, KPMG report meeting 290 Austrian coalition government collapse 2019 263 Austrian Interior Ministry, and refugees/stabilization 265–9 Austrian People’s Party 196 Aykroyd, Dan 21 Badel, Antoine 119, 140 BaFin and Earl 208–10, 294 and Palos 116 ban Wirecard shorting 180, 182, 186, 226, 240–41 blamed by MPs 302 criminal complaint against McCrum and Palma 195 on market manipulation 139, 172 reforms 305 Baker Tilly 85 Banc de Binary 211 Banco de Oro (BDO) 274 declares Wirecard documents spurious 294 Bandits xii ‘Bank of Oman’ 181 Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) 274 declares Wirecard documents spurious 293–4 Barber, Lionel xii, 54, 107, 141, 143–4, 169, 175, 176, 177, 205, 206, 224, 225, 247, 257, 259, 270, 299 and FTI 261–2 on FT bribery accusation 207 on Nick Gold tapes 220–23 on Novichok story 244–5 on Wirecard story 1–6 reviews McCrum and Zatarra 132 Barclay Brothers, Sunday Business 53–4 Barth, Hubert 167, 305 Batson, Chris 173 Bauer, Christopher ix, 45, 62, 249 and Third-Party Acquiring 200 denies running PayEasy 193–4 in Manila 58 meets KPMG 275–6 on Ashazi Services 70–71 Palma seeking 191–4, 207 reported dead 303 Bauer-Schlichtegroll, Paul ix, 14 and Electronic Billing Systems (EBS) 12–14, 17 and Flynt Publications 11–12 and InfoGenie reverse takeover 17 and Wagner 10 buys Wirecard for porn billing 12–13 moves to supervisory board 27 divests from Wirecard 31, 46 Bäumler-Hösl, Hildegard 183–6, 209–10 Bavarian police, 2015 Wirecard raid 101–3 Bayerische Wirtschaft 31 Bellenhaus, Oliver x, 10, 44, 261 and EBS 18–19 and prepaid credit cards 18 CardSystems Middle East 200–202 Al Alam meeting 276–7 and Allied Wallet 210 and Wirecard special audit 252 driving 39–40 personal habits 199–200 surrendered/co-operated 303 BellTrox 298–9 Bergermann, Melanie, on Al Alam 261 Roland Berger 233 Bergman, James, PayEasy 62 Berntsen, Gary 178 Bharara, Preet, hedge funds prosecution 35–6 Bijlipay card reader 80–81 Bill (purported Wirecard source) 244, 282 Bitcoin, Braun on 250 Blank Rome, and Wirecard self-review 102–3 Block, Carson xi, 93, 99 Doing Business in China for Dummies 37 Marsalek tries to bribe 118 on Casino supermarkets 112–13 on NMC Health 261 on Sino Forest 36–7 Bloomberg, Ali on bribing 184–5 Blue Ridge hedge fund 121 Bluetool 97 Bosler, Tobias 107 and the Turkish boxers 33–4 on Wirecard accounts 32–4 Bournewood (BVI entity) 97 Boyd, Roddy, ‘Great Indian Shareholder Robbery’ 146–7 Branston & Gothard 53–4 Braun, Dr Markus, Wirecard CEO ix, 25–34, 46–7, 60, 103, 110, 111, 145, 154, 172, 176, 229, 231, 234 on Ashazi 76–7 and Deutsche Bank 232 loan 147 and FT imaginary clients story 248–52 offers interview 259–60 orders Marsalek to get FT onside 230 intimidates short sellers 31–4 in French Riviera 197 and visit by heavies 197 Ingenico, revives purported bid 117–18 and IT systems 41–4 and KPMG report blames KPMG for delay 289 cash loan January 2020 288 Gill on 301–2 KPMG meeting 290 on publication 291 rejects supervisory board advice 289 suspicions of 287 not fired 294–5 resigns 296 arrested 303 management style 64 and McKinsey report 234–5 on Project Tiger 174, 175 SoftBank, and Wirecard 197–200, 203, 205, 237, 238 Vienna weekends 196–7 on Wirecard and Bitcoin 249–50 on Wirecard Asian non-offices 93 on Wirecard Brazil/Turkey MCAs 236 and Wirecard DAX Index membership 156, 159–60 on Wirecard total integrity 74–7 Zatarra Report 107 Kroll to investigate 117–19 Earl on 124 Wirecard London presentation 111 Braun, Sylvia 64 Bribery Act 207 Brinken Merchant Incorporations 44 British Virgin Islands and shell companies 44 Wirecard and 31 Bub Gauweiler 183 Buckminster Fuller question 75 Budde, Andreas 203 Buffett, Warren 65, 95 Bundestag, Wirecard inquiry 302 critical report on EY 305 MPs apologize to FT 302 Burtnick, Nelson, Marsalek on 62–3 Cambridge Analytica story 150, 241 Camp Alphaville 52–3, 55–6, 96, 112–13 CardSystems Middle East 200–202 Casino supermarkets 112–13 CellarDoor 53 CenturionBet 102n Cerberus 231 chargebacks nutraceuticals scam 47–9 Visa 2009 crackdown 49 China, Wirecard buying Allscore Beijing 250 Chinese frauds exposure 36–7 Chuprygin, Andrey xi and GRU 268 Citadelle Corporate Services, uncooperative 271, 272 Citigroup AsiaPacific deal with Wirecard 145–6, 152–3 Project Tiger summary papers sent to 167–8 Click2Pay (Wirecard online wallet) 13–19 Clifford Chance, and Manila trustee meeting 272–5 Cloudflare 109 CMS lawyers 17, 243 CNBC, Braun interview on FT and accounts 203–4 Coathanger King 244, 257, 282 Cobb, Oliver, on Wirecard 144–5, 236–7, 298 Cohodes, Marc 226 ‘Colin’ (Marsalek’s friend) x, 86–7, 88–9, 277, 278, 301 at P61 116 in Singapore 133–4 on Dr Rami 278 barbecue 279–80 Commerzbank 157, 292 accuses FT of market manipulation 172 retracts 174 losses 304 Committee to Protect Journalists 187 ConePay, purported creditor, non-existent 187–90 Connaught outsourcing company 94 Control Risks, and R&T information flow 202–3 Covid, travel issues 276 credit cards high-risk processing 43–4, 47 payments, post–2008 scrutiny 47 prepaid/unbranded, for Click2Pay e-wallets 17–19 Credit Suisse 23 and Wirecard/SoftBank bond 238 Crypto currency, Braun on 250 Dahmen, Martin (EY) 292 and Singapore audit 202–3 Al Alam meeting 277 and Manila trustee meeting 272–5 on Third-Party arrangements 251–2 ‘Dale’, whistleblower, on Wirecard UK & Ireland 245 Dallas investigation 227, 282 Daniel Stewart stockbroker 134n Dave the IT guy 109, 113, 123 Davies, Paul 238 DAX 30 28, 236, 287, 288 Dennis, Jonathan 213, 215, 216, 217, 241 Der Spiegel 195, 263 Deutsche Bank 3, 183, 196, 224, 305 and Braun loan 288 Samt and Marsalek decide to buy 231 Wirecard and 27 Dialectic Capital hedge fund 105 Dolan, Shane 261 Döpfner, Mathias 177 Dowson, Simon x, 44, 97, 278–9 Reuters investigation 122 Dun & Bradstreet 233 Duterte, Rodrigo 187, 221, 251, 273 Dyer, Geoff 194 Earl, Matthew xi, 94–5, 109–12, 185–6 and BaFin on Zatarra 109 case dropped 141–3 explains Wirecard to 208–10 avoiding Perring 123–4 Kroll on 119, 130 on Markus Braun 124 on Wirecard/Hermes 95, 97–100 reports to FBI on Wirecard critics hacking 208 reports to Mastercard on Wirecard 208 talks on Sky News 298 Toronto University on hacking gang 208, 298–9 under siege 127–31 faked photo of 257 outed on Twitter 127 phished/attacked online 131–2 shadowed 127–9 VisMas Files 124 EasyJet 233 Eaze 285 Edelman, KPMG report meeting 290 Eichelmann, Thomas 233, 235, 249, 294, 296 backs Braun and special audit 271–2, 283, 288–9 El Obeidi, Rami xi, 218–19, 301 Elder, Bryce 108, 117–18 Electronic Billing Systems (EBS) 12–14, 17, 18–19 Elvins, Hayley xi, 255, 256–7, 257n Emery, Bruce 144–5, 236 Enderle, Franz 183, 242 Ennismore hedge fund 91 Epsilon Investments 134 Ernst & Young 76, 77, 237, 248, 249 and CardSystems 201 litigation against 305 and NMC Health 261 and Wirecard Singapore 154, 167–8, 201–3 Wirecard/1A/Hermes investigation 135–8, 144 Wirecard special audit 249–50, 251–2 alerts BaFin 294 and Al Alam Solutions 201, 277 and Manila trustee meeting 272–5 completing audit 292–4 on Third-Party arrangements 251–2 Ernst & Young Canada 37 European Securities and Markets Authority 180 Exxon, on BellTrox 299 Federal Trade Commission, and Allied Wallet 210 Fieldfisher, and Singapore audit 203 financial crisis 2008 23–4 financial markets betting schemes 61 Financial Conduct Authority 99, 109, 255 Financial Times Alphaville see Alphaville Festival of Finance 112–13 Lex column 21–2 North American edition, Lex column 22–4 office, London 1–2 people xii moves back to Bracken House 205, 206–7 newsroom 169 surveillance discovered 173–4 office New York 20–24, 35–8 scepticism culture 37–8 Wirecard investigations/stories 1–7 and short-sellers set-up 212–19, 220–25, 228 blamed for Wirecard short attack 107 Braun orders Marsalek to get FT onside 230 declines Braun interview offer 259–60 FT’s QC blocks Project Tiger story 4–6, 168 puts questions to Wirecard 218 Singapore investigation story published 170–71, 174 accused of market manipulation 172 blames Zatarra 107 Wirecard suing for misuse of business secrets 194–5 Singapore/Philippines stories 236 Wirecard imaginary clients story 248–52 Wirecard action vs. 242–3 internal investigation 240–42 see also specific FT people Fleep messaging service 82 Flutter group 213, 241–2 Flynt, Larry, and Bauer-Schlichtegroll 11–12 Foster Mitchell, Victoria 261 Foulis, Patrick 21 Frankfurt stock exchange (Deutsche Börse) 25 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 180, 305 Freedom Party Austria 178, 263 Freis, James 294–6 Friend Finder 43 Fritsche, Klaus-Dieter 250 Froehlich Tours 191 FTI Consulting 111, 261–2 Full Tilt 30, 62–3 G2Pay payment processor 29–31, 102 G2Pay Dublin 39, 42–4 G2Pay Toronto 30, 42 begins to shrink 45–6, 59–60 ICC-Cal issues 49–51 Mastercard fines 42 miscoded 7995 transactions 42 upfront payment to Wirecard 30–31 Gattringer, Wolfgang, and Libya refugee project 266–9 General Electric 153 German civil legal system 242–3 German institutions, investor confidence in 93 German press supports Wirecard 110 Geschonneck, Alexander 251, 290 Getnow 278 GI Retail 105 GI Technology 86 Gibraltar, Wirecard and 31 Gill, Evelyn (Pav’s mother) 160, 162, 166–7, 168, 171, 306 Gill, Pav, Wirecard AsiaPacific legal counsel x, 152–60 and Ng investigate finance team 155–8 and whistleblower 154–5, 156, 158 Ng & Steinhoff, Telegram chats 157–8, 163 on Braun/Marsalek 301–2 on Wirecard Singapore 161–5, 171 ousted 158–60 Project Tiger copies 158–60 thriving 305–6, 307 Gold, Nick xii, 212–13, 229, 254–5 El Obeidi on 219 IVA agreed 306 Kroll to investigate 117–19 on FT about to expose Wirecard 213–17 recorded/quoted 221–2, 241–2 Goldman Sachs 249 Goomo travel firm 87, 88, 133, 135, 137 P61 HQ 116 Görres, Andrea, and Wirecard x self-review 102–3 special audit 252 Graham and Dodd, Security Analysis 95 Grant Thornton 30 Greenvale Capital 144–5, 236–7 GRU (Russia Military Intelligence) 263–70 Guardian 53 Gupta, Varun 89 Gustenau, Brigadier, on refugee project 267 Guttenberg, Karl-Theodore zu 250 Hallbergmoos, Wirecard office 9–11 Hamilton, Ben (re Kroll), fishing visit to Earl 129–30 Handelsblatt 177, 186, 219, 222, 229 Hanson, Nigel xii, 3–6, 106, 125, 170, 171, 175, 194, 205, 243 on McCrum’s correspondence hacked 121–2 on FT/short-sellers set-up 220–22 reviews McCrum and Zatarra 132 Harper Gray 174 Harris, Daniel, and Wirecard shorting rumour 182–3 Harris, James 115 Helms, Matthias (Wirecard due diligence) 135–7 Hempton, John xi, 55–6, 74, 188–9 Henseler, Alfons 234 Herbert Smith Freehills (law firm) 175, 220, 221, 223, 224 Hermes i-Tickets 78–89 Earl on 95–7 Ernst & Young investigation 135–8 Ramasamy on 111 Hodgson, Camila 149 ‘Hollins, Ian’ 96, 112, 123–4, 127, 226, 305 Honourable Artillery Company 52 House of Wirecard Alphaville series 91 HSBC 185 Hufeld, Felix 294, 305 Hume, Neil 54 Hustler, Flynt Publications, Bauer-Schlichtegroll and 11–12 ICC-Cal 27, 48 miscoded 7995 transactions 42 Merchant IDs crackdown 50–51 Wirecard cash stolen 50–51 IIFL Wealth 82 Inatec 46, 61, 63, 97, 116 InBev and Budweiser story 54 Indo-German Chamber of Commerce 250 InfoGenie reverse takeover 17 Ingenico purported bid for Wirecard 108, 117–18 Investors Chronicle 21 Israeli security Wirecard executives and 50–51 Iwersen, Sönke 219, 222 J-Capital Research 92–4, 98, 113, 121 ‘Jack’, whistleblower 166, 188 Jakab, Spencer 23 Jenkins, Patrick 141 Jilson (photographer) 187 Jon, on short sellers surveillance 254–7 Jones Day 130 Jones, Sam xii, 126 on FT office surveillance 173 on Marsalek, Libya, GRU and Wagner 263–70 Kalixa, Senjo buys 138 Kaminska, Izabella 223–4 Kepler Cheuvreux 292 Khalaf, Roula 173, 259–60, 270, 302 Khan, Imran 1 Khawaja, Ahmad ‘Andy’ 210, 304 Kilbey, Gary xii, 115, 306 and Marsalek 147–51 on Wirecard shorting rumour 181 on Wirecard story news leak 170–71 Kilbey, Tom xii, 147, 148–51 and Marsalek 182 Kirch, Leo 183 Kirch Media 109–10, 142 Kirk, Stuart (US Lex team) 35 Kleinschmidt, Kilian on Marsalek 264–5 reaction to Marsalek and Libya 269–70 testifies 302 Klestil, Stefan 232–3, 234 Knöchelmann, Dietmar x, 29–31, 45 KPMG 26 on 1A/Hermes 85, 88 Wirecard special audit 249, 250–51 Al Alam meeting 277 complains of obstructions/delays 287 Manila trustee meeting 272–5 on PayEasy client non-existence 276 PayEasy meeting 275–6 seeking Wirecard Singapore cash 271–6 draft report to supervisory board 286–90 enforces deadline 290 final report, no evidence for Third-Party Acquiring 291 Braun’s spins on 285, 287, 291–2 Kramp-Karrenbauer, Annegret 231 Krisper, Stephanie, on Marsalek contact 264–5 Kroeber, Susannah, on Wirecard Asian offices 92–4 Kroll investigations 58 accusatory letter to Earl 129–30 seeking Zatarra, 117, 119 Kukies, Jörg 231, 249–50 Kurniawan, Edo x and Ernst & Young 135–8, 154 on cash definition issues 259 FT and 6–7, 174 head of Wirecard Asia Pacific finance team 138, 153–8, 161, 170, 172, 210, 246, 301 and Hong Kong unit accounts 154 on ‘round tripping’ funds 155–8 paperwork 258 Wirecard supports 170 and Project Tiger 158, 165–6 vanished 176, 303 Kurz, Sebastian 196, 266 Lauterbach, Anastassia 233–4, 235, 249, 287 Lehman Brothers 22–3, 47 Leitz, Sven-Olaf 251 Ley, Wirecard CFO ix, 28, 31, 46, 50–51, 60, 64, 78, 79, 136, 142, 153, 236, 291 on Deutsche Bank 239 and Hermes 84, 85 and Kirch Media 109–10 on Wirecard Asian non-offices 93 Wirecard cash flow statement 90–91 and Wirecard self-review 102–3, 104 confronts Greenvale 144–5 KPMG report meeting 290 arrested 303, 304 Liao, Bob 139 Libya Marsalek and 116 cement plants 116, 135, 151, 247, 267, 268 creating strong border force 269 refugees as guest workers 266–9 Kleinschmidt’s reaction to 269–70 GRU and 268–9 Rami El Obeidi 255–6 Lincolnshire police 125–6 Linklaters 88 Lipscomb, Dashiell 200 Lordship Trading blog 95 Louis XIII project 231, 239 M’Cwabeni, Vuyiswa 233, 234 Macquarie, on Wirecard 139 Madoff, Bernie, Ponzi scam 23–4 Mail on Sunday 261 Majali, Yousef 105, 121 Manager Magazin allegations 261 Eichelmann interview 271–2 on forensic audit 249 on FT bribery 207 on Wirecard board 234–5 Maria, Tolentino’s paralegal 273 Marques, Eduardo xi, 299 on Senjo and 1A 146 on Wirecard and SoftBank 210 shorts Wirecard stock 59 Marsalek, Jan (Wirecard chief operating officer) ix, 39, 40, 46–51, 64, 153, 154, 172, 226 and 1A fund 115 Al Alam meeting 276–7 on Ali, FT and Bloomberg bribery scam 183–6 and Akhavan 278 whistleblower on 285 and Animo Associates 278–9 on Burtnick hiring 62–3 on Cambridge Analytica 150 and CardSystems Third-Party Acquiring 200–203 and Chuprygin; Gustenau; Gattringer 268–9 and Click2Pay 11, 13–16 ATM cards for e-wallets 17–19 on Deutsche Bank 239 and Dr Rami 278 on Elon Musk/Tesla 151 and Nick Gold tapes 217–19 Kilbeys, pays off 151 suspected of story news leak 170 G2Pay pressured 46 and Gold 213–14 and Goomo travel firm 87, 88–9 and Hermes i-Tickets/1A 78–89 and fake clients special audit 251–2 at Colin’s barbecue 279–80 crying drunk 279–80 and FT fake clients story 248–52 Third-Party Acquiring cover story 258–9 defends Third-Party business 234, 235–6 on Inatec 61 on Ingenico purported bid 108 and IT systems 41–4 on Israeli politics 178–9 on KPMG report publication 291 KPMG report meeting 290 post-audit, offers raw data 287–8 stalls 294–5 suspended not fired 294–5 fired, police charge 296 disappears to Minsk 300 and Kurniawan 136–8 on Libya 151 and refugees as guest workers 266–9 cement plants 116, 135, 151, 247, 267, 268 on creating strong Libya border force 269 Manila trustee meeting 273–5 management/lifestyle 64 extreme Covid precautions 277–8 extravagance, employee on 177–8 new information on 263–70 office 115–16 office, Samt on 252–3 P61 villa 115–16, 269, 277, 278, 280 questions about 247 Sabines (two assistants) 115, 116, 269, 279, 300 on McCrum 149 McKinsey report on 234, 235 and Novichok documents 303 recipe 179–80 story 244 and nutraceuticals chargebacks scam 47–9 PayEasy meeting 275–6 police take inbox archives 101–3, 104 Rami El Obeidi link 256 ‘Ray’, correspondence from 178 and Samt 229–30 decide to buy Deutsche Bank 231 on Senjo 138 in Singapore 134–5 and Singapore audit 201–3 in Project Tiger papers 166 on Singapore cash new Manila trustee 272 Turkey money replaces Singapore 278 and Smaul 65–6 nutraceutical processing deal 59–63 on Syria visit with Russian military 266 on Telegram 150 on Wirecard misunderstood 149 and Zatarra Report 114–19 suspects UK leak 116–17 targets McCrum and Palos 116–19 tries to bribe Carson Block 118 Marsalek, Viola 252, 253 Martiradonna, Francesco 102n Mastercard 43 fines G2Pay 42 Project Tiger summary papers sent to 167–8 compliance person 118–19 on Wirecard 208 Mateschitz, Dietrich 15 Mattias, Wulf 232–3, 249, 271 MCA Mathematik (Greenvale alias) 236–7 on forensic audit 249 McCrum, Charlotte (author’s wife) 22, 55, 126–7, 165, 174, 205, 256, 285, 297 targeted by Wirecard 175 McCrum, Dan early career 20–24, 35 New York FT office 20–24, 35–8 joins Alphaville 55–6 moved to FT Lex 141, 143–4 FT internal investigation 240–41 personal life 22–3, 105, 120, 140–41, 165, 205, 225, 227–8, 285, 297–8, 299 improves home security 126–7, 131–2 surveillance fears 257–8 and Nick Gold tapes 220–25, 228 Wirecard investigations/stories Animo Associates 283–4 and Ashazi Services, Bahrain 67–71, 72–7 blog post on Wirecard short attack 106 Exocet on fake clients 247–8, 272, 300 and Macquarie Wirecard meeting 139–40 following-up Wirecard Third-Party Acquiring 221 Marsalek said to intend bribe 147–50 and Palma, accused of bribery and threats 207 criminal case dropped 302 and Pav Gill 161–5 Singapore story publication 1–7 telephone interview with Braun 74–7 testifies to Bundestag inquiry 302 and Zatarra accusations against 127, 132 correspondence hacked 121–2, 125–6 decides to move on 132 Kroll to investigate 117–19 Marsalek’s security to investigate 116–19 meets with Earl and Perring 100 Schillings on 119 on whistleblowers protection 302–3 see also specific people or stories McKinsey 35, 233 Wirecard compliance review 252 on Wirecard Third-Party business 234, 235 and Wirecard/Deutsche Bank 239 Merchant Category Codes 16 Merchant ID (MID) 16 Visa/Mastercard and 43 Merkel, Angela 250 Metropolitan Police 208 Mishcon de Reya 127, 142, 143 Moody’s 237 Mubadala, takes over SoftBank loan to Wirecard 238 multilevel marketing pyramid schemes 61 Munich public prosecutor 183 Munich Security Conference 231 Murphy, Gary 226–7 Murphy, Paul xii, 52–5, 106, 115, 143–4, 170, 171, 172, 177, 194, 211, 225, 228, 237, 245, 246–7, 263, 278, 297, 298, 299, 302, 306 and Ashazi Services story 67, 68, 69, 73 has Alphaville IT secured 125 at Alphaville’s vaudeville 223–4 and Coathanger King/Bill 282–3 on FT/short-sellers set-up 220–22 denies shorting rumour 181 frightens Animo Associates director 279 FT internal investigation 241–2 Marsalek said to intend bribe 147–51 on SoftBank and Wirecard 205–6 spy story published 260 and surveillance informers 254–8 and Wirecard source 243–4 on Wirecard story 1–6, 100 Naheta, Akshay 198, 210, 237, 238 Narayanan, Veerappan 88 Nasdaq exchange 24 Neteller 16, 29 Neuer Markt Frankfurt 17 Neukeferloh, Grasbrunn, Wirecard move to 14 Newcastle Building Society prepaid card unit 66 Newton, Helmut 14 Ng, Royston 153, 154, 209 and Gill investigate finance team 155–8 Marsalek implicates in Bloomberg scam 185–6 Nikkei 144, 194, 205, 206, 222 Nix, Alexander 241 NMC Health 261 Novichok documents leaked 303 GRU and 268 Marsalek story 244 recipe, Marsalek and 179–80 Novum stockbroker 134n nutraceuticals charges scam 47–9 Marsalek deal with Smaul 59–63 O’Connor, Sarah 149 O’Murchu, Cynthia xii, 149, 261, 282 O’Sullivan, Henry x, 117, 249, 250, 271, 278 arrested 304 and Hermes i-Tickets 78–89 and Senjo loan 138 in Singapore 133–4 and Third-Party Acquiring 200 WalPay 102 Odey, Crispin 257 Öner, Ahmet 33–4 online casinos/gambling and banks 16 and Click2Pay 14–16 and Wirecard 14–17 countries outlawing 45–6 USA bans 2006 29 online poker legal grey area 29 US indictment 2011 62–3 7995 transactions 42–3 online porn billing, Bauer-Schlichtegroll and Wirecard 12–13, 43 online wallets 13, 16–17, 29 Orbit travel agency 87, 88 Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons 179 Ortiz, Carlos, and Wirecard self-review 102–3 Osterloh, Martin 47–9, 57–8, 199, 301 P61 (Marsalek’s villa) 115–16, 269, 277, 278, 280 Pacha club 15 Pacquiao, Manny 304 Pago (Deutsche Bank) 27 Pal, Alasdair 298 accusations against 127 on Dowson paperwork factory 122 Palldium phase 2 surveillance dossier 257 Palma, Stefania (FT) xii, 176, 243, 276, 299, 300 accused of bribery and threats 207 criminal case dropped 302 finds whistleblower Jack 166 in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur 165 meetings with Gill and Evelyn 163–4 hostile-environment training 193 seeking Christopher Bauer 191–4 seeking ConePay 187–90 Palos, Brett 116–19, 257 Paolucci, Paul 208 Pauls, Heike, analyst xii, 292, 304 accuses FT of market manipulation 172 retracts 174 on ‘buying opportunity’ 175 Paulson, John, and Sino Forest 36–7 PayEasy Solutions 58, 62, 70–71, 258, 272, 301 and Third-Party Acquiring 200 KPMG and 249, 275–6 no information 191–4 unsecured loans/no income 286–7 PayPal 2 Perring, Fraser xii, 95, 96–7, 109–13, 179, 226, 257 faces prosecution for Zatarra 141 further activities 305 on ‘Ian Hollins’ 96, 112, 123–4, 127, 226, 305 Kroll on 119 on Wirecard/Hermes 95, 97–100 outed on Twitter 127 reports demand to name Zatarra people 124–5 wants expenses 123–4 Perry, Leo xii, 210, 299 on Wirecard 67, 73, 90–92, 139–40 Philippines Wirecard new trustee meeting 272–5 Wirecard purported partners 187–94 Palma’s story published 195 Poker Stars 30, 42n Pollard, Brett 261 Ponzi scam (Madoff) 24 Portsea Asset Management 226 Prima Vista Solusi 66 Project Panther 239 ‘Project Tiger’ 155–8 Gill saves copies 158–60 information flow 202–3 summary papers sent to banks/auditor 167–8 taken over by Marsalek 157–9 ProtonMail 178, 227 Puck, Wolfgang 134, 148 Putin, Vladimir, foreign policy speculative 269 matryoshka doll 252 Quadir, Fahmi 225–7 on Akhavan and Marsalek 285 attacked 281–2 and Marsalek whistleblower 226–7 Safkhet Capital, FBI source 281–2 on Wirecard Pennsylvania 226 Quintana-Plaza, Susana 233, 289 Quirk, Mark 278–9, 284 Rajah & Tann, Project Tiger 155 Gill seen with McCrum 162 interim report 167 information flow 202–3 Report 177, 243 Braun on 287 Ramasamy, Ramu and Palani ‘The Boys’ x, 79–80, 81–9 at London presentation 111 blamed for Hermes accounts 137 Wirecard falling-out 155 Rami El Obeidi, Dr and Marsalek 278 and short sellers surveillance 255–6 sends FT flowers 260–61 Randall, Jeff 53 Raynor, Greg xi, 255, 257n Mancunian facilitator 213–17 refugees/stabilization, Austrian Interior Ministry, and 265–9 Reichert, Jochen, on Zatarra weaknesses 109–10 Reserve Bank of India 83 Reuters, on Dowson paperwork factory 122 Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC, law firm) 107, 222, 224–5, 228, 240–2 on Zatarra Report 107 FT internal investigation 240–2 Robert Smith 261 Roddy 95–7, 112–13, 123 at Wirecard London presentation 111–12 on Wirecard/Hermes 95, 97–100 seeks advice 99, 100 sees vehicles shadowing Earl 129 Roland Berger 233 RP Richter (auditor) 30 Rubie, Saif 213, 216, 217 Russian diplomat, at Colin’s barbecue 279–80 Russian military in Syria 266 Novichok 179–80, 244, 268, 303 Wagner Group soldiers 268–9 Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) 263–70 Sabines (Marsalek’s two assistants) 115, 116, 269, 279, 300 Safkhet Capital 281–2 Samt, Mr (Marsalek’s PR) x, 217–19, 229–30, 231, 252–3 Santego Capital 81 SAP 233 Schäfer, Daniel 177 Schillings law firm 91 blames FT for Wirecard short attack 107 letters to FT on Zatarra 132 on McCrum/Alphaville 119 on Wirecard story 4–6, 170–71 replaced 175 Schneider, Dagmar 279 and KPMG special audit 251, 252 KPMG report meeting 290 Manila trustee meeting 273–5 Schneider, Klaus (SdK), on Wirecard accounts 34 Schütt, Michael 59, 97 Schütz, Alexander 196–7, 198 on FT 196–7 apologizes 304–5 Schwager, Market Wizards 95 SdK (Schutzgemeinschaft Der Kleinaktionäre) on Wirecard 31–4 Sender, Henny 24 Senjo 134, 138, 258, 272, 301 and Third-Party Acquiring 200, 202 buys Kalixa 138 KPMG to consider 249 unsecured loans/no income 286–7 Sewing, Christian 231, 232 ShadowFall Research 185, 209 Shah, Amit 82–8 Shanmugaratnam, R.

Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity
by Edward Tenner
Published 8 Jun 2004

Stickley designed them to be “massive” furniture, especially intended for reading, that would not be moved often within the household. Elbert Hubbard, a more flamboyant and self-serving American apostle of Morris’s arts and crafts movement— he had made his fortune selling soap with a nineteenth-century version of multilevel marketing—produced his own handmade style of the chair. But Stickley and even Hubbard were too devoted to the craftsman ideal to enter the mass market. (Stickley called his product a reclining chair rather than a Morris chair, as though it were crass to exploit the master’s name.) Mass sales were left to another tier of manufacturers, who used the latest machinery to simulate the features that idealists had prized as “structural ornament”—hallmarks of hand construction, especially the pegs that secured (or appeared to secure) joints.

Howard Rheingold
by The Virtual Community Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier-Perseus Books (1993)
Published 26 Apr 2012

The kinds that start with the prefix alt, for alternative, are the most varied and the least controlled. Anybody who can post messages to the rest of Usenet, and who knows how to use the programming tools, can propagate a newsgroup; college freshmen around the world seem to delight in propagating silly newsgroups (e.g., alt.multilevel-marketing.scam. scam.scam). Few sites decide to carry frivolous newsgroups, although the definition of frivolous is quite elastic. The biz, comp, misc, rec, soc, sci, and talk (business, computers, miscellaneous, recreation, societies and cultures, science, and general discussion) newsgroup hierarchies have very loose rules about creating new groups.

Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal
by Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz
Published 20 Jul 2020

The college counselor quickly revealed that the scam went far beyond a single bribe paid to a single coach for a single parent. He just didn’t know he was giving away his secrets. In a May call, for instance, Singer sought Meredith’s help enlisting more coaches to sign on to his bribery scheme. Singer had long run a sort of multilevel marketing model, encouraging coaches to bring in their wayward peers. He sometimes even paid a finder’s fee for successful matches. On the call, he advised Meredith on how to make the pitch. Singer ticked off seven elite schools and suggested Meredith relay that Singer was already working at those esteemed places.

It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO
by Felix Gillette and John Koblin
Published 1 Nov 2022

“That last factor enables I’ll Be Gone in the Dark to interrogate the reasons why this genre is so enticing, especially to women, something that other TV true crime has rarely, if ever, done.” In the months that followed, HBO would go on to air documentaries investigating the alleged misdeeds of director Woody Allen, the music manager Ike Turner, and the NXIVM multilevel marketer and convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere. * * * • • • THE ON-AIR SHIFT toward more female protagonists could be traced back, in part, to the directive made in 2016 by Casey Bloys to diversify HBO’s lineup. In the years since, HBO had ushered in the most female-centric stretch of programming in the network’s history.

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
by Bruce Schneier
Published 1 Jan 2000

Modern financial systems—checks, credit cards, and automatic teller machine networks— each rack up multi-million-dollar fraud losses per year. Electronic commerce will be no different; neither will the criminals’ techniques. Scams According to the National Consumers League, the five most common online scams are sale of Internet services, sale of general merchandise, auctions, pyramid and multilevel marketing schemes, and business opportunities. People read some enticing e-mail or visit an enticing Web site, send money off to some post office box for some reason or another, and end up either getting nothing in return or getting stuff of little or no value. Sounds just like the physical world: Lots of people get burned.

Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
by Elizabeth Williamson
Published 8 Mar 2022

Most years Jones released two films, with titles like Police State 2000 and its three sequels; Matrix of Evil (2003); and the popular Endgame (2007), whose dark and sweeping plot predicts depopulation through mass poisoning. The couple grew wealthy from video sales, advertising, and Jones’s on-air promotion of diet supplements and other products from Youngevity, a multilevel marketing company. They bought properties and cars and a $70,000 grand piano. They stowed more than $750,000 in silver, gold, and precious metals in safe-deposit boxes, according to court records.[10] Just before Christmas 2010, they bought the property where Kelly now lives, paying $1.1 million in a secretive deal in which they used only their middle initials and required the sellers not to release any information without their permission, citing “safety and privacy concerns,” according to records.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
by Jane Mayer
Published 19 Jan 2016

One system is for the superrich, like Anschutz and his wife, Nancy, who are allowed to delay and avoid taxes on investment gains, among other tax tricks. The other system is for the less than fabulously wealthy.” Some donor families had clearly committed tax crimes. Richard DeVos, co-founder of Amway, the Michigan-based worldwide multilevel marketing empire, had pleaded guilty to a criminal scheme in which he had defrauded the Canadian government of $22 million in customs duties in 1982. DeVos later claimed it had been a misunderstanding, but the record showed the company had engaged in an elaborate, deliberate hoax in an effort to hoodwink Canadian authorities.

The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley
by Jimmy Soni
Published 22 Feb 2022

In an email sent to Davison and Linnett, Thiel outlined the main takeaways from their discussion, including: “We will investigate further whether (and what kind) of collaboration with eBay might be possible—especially given the consumer-to-consumer disintermediation model that our two companies share.” However, the team shelved the idea for the rest of 1999. “eBay was such a sketchy company,” Thiel later told a Stanford audience, “multilevel marketing people selling junk on the internet.” Confinity, on the other hand, built cutting-edge mobile payment technology. Never the twain would meet. When eBay acquired the payments start-up Billpoint in May of 1999, Confinity assumed that the purchase would turn Billpoint into eBay’s default payments system.III Phew, okay, we don’t have to be on eBay, Nosek remembered thinking.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
by Jeremy Scahill
Published 1 Jan 2007

“For him, personal success took a back seat to spreading the Gospel and fighting for the moral restoration of our society.”27 In the 1980s, the Prince family merged with one of the most venerable conservative families in the United States when Erik Prince’s sister Betsy married Dick DeVos, whose father, Richard, founded the multilevel marketing firm Amway and went on to own the Orlando Magic basketball team.28 Amway was a powerhouse distributor of home products and was regularly plagued by accusations that it was run like a cult and was nothing more than a sophisticated pyramid scheme.29 The company would rise to become one of the greatest corporate contributors in the U.S. electoral process in the 1990s, mostly to Republican candidates and causes, and used its business infrastructure as a massive political organizing network.30 “Amway relies heavily on the nearly fanatical—some say cultlike—devotion of its more than 500,000 U.S.

Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980
by Rick Perlstein
Published 17 Aug 2020

The chairman of this “popular citizen’s movement” was a man named Jay Van Andel, who possessed an estimated net worth between $300 and $500 million—though that figure was disputed: the company he ran, Amway, was not traded publicly. Amway specialized in a controversial business model known as multilevel marketing, in which people paid to distribute its consumer products, but earned most of their income by staking a claim on a percentage of the sales of the “downstream” franchisees they recruited into the scheme. Each new recruit earned a smaller share of the take, unto the vanishing point. Most earned nothing—which was why critics called this business model a “pyramid scheme.”