ANTHONY POWELL

ap1Dates of Herbalife Distributorship: 1991 – 2013
Status in Herbalife: President’s Team (former) – left to join Vemma
Business Methods: Training Videos; Leadership Development Weekends; Online Recruiting Businesses

 

 

Background on Herbalife-Related Businesses

  • Anthony Powell is affiliated with several businesses with ties to Herbalife.

o   eHome Business Network, Inc. (“eHome”) is an online recruiting business for Herbalife distributors. eHome is registered in Nevada (Filing Number: EO453712006-2, registration attached as Powell Exhibit A). The registration filing uses the address 9120 Double Diamond Pkwy, Reno, NV 89521, and lists Laughlin Associates, Inc. as the registered agent. Powell is listed as occupying all of the corporation’s officer positions. Powell’s LinkedIn website, attached as Powell Exhibit B and available at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/anthony-v-powell/14/482/1a1, states that he founded eHome in January 2004 (although the registration filing notes that the company’s Articles of Incorporation were filed on June 16, 2006). eHome remains an “active” corporation.

o   Newest Way to Wealth (“NWTW”) was a lead generation business founded by Chairman’s Club member Doran Andry and other senior Herbalife distributors in the 1990s. Powell was one of the senior Herbalife distributors directly involved in NWTW. Powell was listed as the senior distributor in charge of one of the NWTW organizations on a “Recruitment Website Renewal Order Form” from www.ebusinessforyou.net (see infra). Powell Exhibit C, available at http://web.archive.org/web/20030315081746/http://ebusinessforyou.net/forms/RecruitmentWebsiteRenewalOrderForm.pdf.

    • In 2002, NWTW, Herbalife, Powell, and other senior Herbalife distributors were sued in a class action in federal district court in Los Angeles. Plaintiff alleged that Herbalife and NWTW constituted a pyramid scheme and that the defendants were committing fraud and securities fraud by making deceptive earnings projections and omitting and misrepresenting the risks inherent in the business. See Powell Exhibit D (Amended Complaint, Jacobs. v. Herbalife International Inc., et al., No. 02-01431 FMC (C.D. Cal. May 2, 2003)) (“Jacobs Amended Complaint”). Plaintiff further alleged that “Powell, along with other of the defendants, conceived, authorized the use of and operated the Lead Generation System known as ‘The Newest Way to Wealth.’” Id. at ¶ 20. Herbalife settled the case for $6 million in 2004.
    • NWTW was associated with the following Herbalife recruiting websites, none of which are still active:

o   Dream Builders & Associates International, Inc. (“Dream Builders”) is a Nevada registered Herbalife business operated by Powell with ties to NWTW (Filing Number: C24589-1996, registration attached as Powell Exhibit E). The registration filing uses the address 2533 N. Carson Street, Carson City, NV 89706, and lists Powell as the corporation’s Secretary. According to the Jacobs Amended Complaint (Powell Ex. D at ¶ 18), “Dream Builders operated under the . . . fictitious name “The Newest Way to Wealth,” and distributed and disseminated the NWTW promotional materials . . . and [sold] the NWTW System . . . .” The company’s registration status is listed as “Permanently Revoked.” Powell Ex. E.

o   Powell is associated with a number of other Herbalife and work-from-home websites:

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  • Today, www.ldwevent.com is a website for a Vemma training weekend (see infra for details on Powell’s transition from Herbalife to Vemma).  The website is operated by Global Pro System (“GPS”)—Powell’s Vemma recruiting business.

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  • GPS (www.mygpsioffice.com) is now an umbrella for “the Six Figure Frenzy System” (“SFF”).  SFF offers eCommerce websites, training, contact manager, and tracking services to Vemma distributors.  The biography portion of Powell’s Twitter website, https://twitter.com/AnthonyPowell1, in which Powell describes himself as an “Entrepreneur” and “Network Marketing Legend Billion Dollar Producer,” links to the SFF-specific website, http://www.sixfigurefrenzy.com.

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o   Powell is also the registrant of the website for a business called Nutravie, LLC (domain registration attached as Powell Exhibit H).  Nutravie was terminated on December 28, 2012 (Articles of Termination attached as Powell Exhibit I), but appears to have been transformed into Nutrie, LLC, which is an active business (www.nutrie.com) (see infra)

o   Nutravie is registered in Arizona (Filing Number: L-1735693-2, Articles of Organization attached as Powell Exhibit J).  The Articles of Organization use the address 15029 N. Thompson Peak Pkwy – Suite B111-568, Scottsdale, AZ 85260­, and list LSE Holdings (Aaron Parkinson), Nutriscience Holdings (Seyamack Kouretchian), Value Plan International (Tarun Juneja), and Versailles Management Group (Amber Provost) as members.

o   On his LinkedIn website, Powell also states that his current title is CEO of a business called CRM Logix, Inc.  See Powell Ex. B.  The GPS/Six Figure Frenzy website contains the following notice at the bottom of its homepage:  “© 2013 CRM Logix Inc.”

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Primary Source Data on Business Practices

Lead Generation Materials

  • As mentioned above, and throughout the Jacobs Amended Complaint (Powell Ex. D), Powell was a key participant in the NWTW Herbalife lead generation business.
  • An e-mail regarding Powell’s departure from Herbalife that was sent to reporters by Herbalife’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications, Barbara Henderson, said, “Anthony Powell’s stated focus is on creating ‘explosive growth’ fueled by lead purchases.  As he has also stated, this is ‘a difference in philosophy,’ not consistent with Herbalife’s focus on building business through the daily consumption of our nutrition products.”  See http://www.businessforhome.org/2013/01/anthony-powell-herbalife-joins-vemma/.  Powell’s departure from Herbalife came less than three weeks after Pershing Square featured Powell’s personal volume purchasing behavior in its December 20, 2012 presentation on Herbalife entitled “Who wants to be a Millionaire.”  See http://factsaboutherbalife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Who-wants-to-be-a-Millionaire.pdf  at 164-71.  Powell had been an Herbalife distributor for 22 years.  See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-08/herbalife-distributor-jumps-to-energy-drink-company-vemma.html.  After all that time, it is curious that he and Herbalife discovered their sharp “difference in philosophy” with regard to recruiting versus retail sales only after attention was drawn to Powell.

Recruiting Materials

  • Powell’s NWTW organization provided recruitment tools for new distributors, including a “recruitment website.”  See Powell Ex. C.
  • Powell’s www.ldwevent.com website sold tickets to Herbalife Leadership Development Weekends (“LDW”).  According to Herbalife fliers describing LDWs, an LDW provides “training” to distributors who have qualified for Supervisor status.  Indeed, in promoting LDWs, Powell encouraged distributors to accumulate the requisite Volume Points to qualify for such events.  See, e.g., http://herbalifemail.com/Flyers/2013_July_LDW_QualFlyer_usen.pdf.
  • eHome produced a DVD of a 2006 Herbalife Supervisor Workshop at which other senior Herbalife distributors spoke.  These speeches encouraged distributors to purchase Herbalife products and featured numerous claims about potential income from pursuing the Herbalife business opportunity.  See Bergs Report, p. 5, for more details.

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Links to Other Senior Distributors

  • Throughout his Herbalife career, Powell often worked side-by-side with Chairman’s Club member Doran Andry.

o   Andry and Powell worked together on the NWTW Herbalife lead generation business.  See, e.g., Powell Ex. C.  As alleged in the Jacobs Amended Complaint, “Andry and defendant Powell were actively involved in the conception, formation and operation of the NWTW System . . . .”  Powell Ex. D at ¶ 21.

o   Additionally, in 2006, Andry, Powell, and President’s Team member Caroline Tsutakawa, among others, hosted an Herbalife “Supervisor Workshop.”  Tsutakawa posted photographs of the event, which she referred to as the “FSSiOffice Supervisor Workship,” at https://picasaweb.google.com/CarolineJLT/FSSiOfficeSupervisorWorkshopSept2006?authkey=Gv1sRgCMHQ_tSBpOT4lAE#.  See also Andry Report, p. 17.

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Powell featured in the Supervisor Workshop album posted by Caroline Tsutakawa, available at https://picasaweb.google.com/CarolineJLT/FSSiOfficeSupervisorWorkshopSept2006?authkey=Gv1sRgCMHQ_tSBpOT4lAE#5103599771472428546.

o   The Jacobs Amended Complaint alleged that Powell also worked with Herbalife President’s Team members Craig and Caroline Tsutakawa, Brett Bartholomew, Leah Singleton, Steven and Debera Combs, John Beall, and Tarun Juneja.  See generally Powell Ex. D.

    • Similarly, Powell appears to have worked with President’s Team members Rick and Carla Berg.  In an older version of Powell’s Leadership Development Weekend website, available at http://web.archive.org/web/20090311025334/http:/www.ldwevent.com/, registrants are asked to select their “organization”, and the two options are “eHome” and “eTeam”—the latter of which may have been related to the Bergs’ e-Team Marketing online recruiting business for Herbalife distributors.  In addition, Carla Berg was a guest speaker at the 2006 Supervisor Workshop mentioned above.  At that Workshop, President’s Team member Donte Andry refers to “Carla and Anthony’s organization.”  See https://vimeo.com/user24651359/review/85609180/b8242acd55 at 6:16.  Moreover, the DVD of the Supervisor Workshop (produced by eHome) features a photograph of Carla Berg on its back cover.  See also Bergs Report, p. 13.

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  • Powell also appears connected to former Chairman’s Club member Shawn Dahl’s new MLM called Nutrie (www.nutrie.com).  Nutrie is registered in Arizona (Filing Number:  R-1876096-6, registration attached as Powell Exhibit L), and uses the address 8501 E. Princess Rd. – Ste. 120, Scottsdale, AZ 85255.  Dahl joined Nutrie after departing Herbalife in 2013.  On his LinkedIn website, available at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4906791, Dahl lists his title as “Nutrie Founding Brand Partner,” and his Twitter website biography, available at https://twitter.com/shawndahl, states that he is a “Nutrie Founding Member.”  Nutrie appears to be the continuation of Powell’s Nutravie business, which was terminated on December 28, 2012 (See Powell Ex I).  Indeed, three of the four Managers/Members listed on the Nutrie registration filing overlap with those listed in the Nutravie Articles of Organization—Aaron Parkinson (Manager), Nutriscience Holdings (Member), and LSE Holdings (Member).  Powell Ex. L at 2; see also supra.  In addition, Nutravie appears to have originally trademarked the “Automatic Body” brand (http://www.trademarkia.com/automatic-body-85717366.html) that is now the lynchpin weight loss “program” underlying Nutrie’s business (http://www.automaticbody.com/).

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o   It also appears that Powell’s CRM Logix business is connected to Nutrie.  In a 2013 Nutrie blog run by Bo Del Villar, the link provided to readers to enroll in Nutrie is a CRMLogix.com link.  See http://nutrieopportunity.wordpress.com/category/nutrie-opportunity/page/6/.

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o   Additionally, if one uses Google to search for sites associated with “CRMLogix.com” (i.e., using the search term “site:crmlogix.com”), the only resulting websites are Nutrie’s Health Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions, and Marketing Policy.

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  • Before he parted ways with the company, Powell appeared at Herbalife events with other senior Herbalife distributors.

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Powell appearing at an Herbalife event with President’s Team members Joe McClendon (left), Donte and Trina Andry (second and third from left), and Caroline and Craig Tsutakawa (second from right and right).

Links to Herbalife Corporate Leadership

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  • In a 2008 edition of Herbalife Today, Powell was featured twice.  In the first profile, honoring Powell for being a “Royalty Achiever” (30K President’s Team), the magazine quoted Powell as saying, “I was taught by Herbalife legend Mark Doyle, who said that if you go wide with your organization long enough, you will find the right amount of leadership to help you build it.  Now, I’m on track for 50K this year!”  In the second profile, recognizing Powell for qualifying for Herbalife “Diamonds,” Powell told readers that “[t]hrough presentations, retailing and recruiting, I will be able to reach my goal of Chairman’s Club by the end of the year.”  See Powell Exhibit N at 22-23; available at http://factsaboutherbalife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/139.pdf.  Powell never achieved Chairman’s Club status before his departure from Herbalife in 2013.

 

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  • In an announcement for its 2009 Future President’s Team Retreat, Herbalife promoted Powell’s appearance at the event.  See Powell Exhibit O.
  • Herbalife featured a profile of Powell in its 30th Anniversary publication, produced in 2010 and available to any Herbalife distributor who ordered it.  In the profile, Powell describes his “quality of life.”  “‘I have the freedom to come and go as I please, live in the home of my choice and drive the cars I’ve always wanted to drive,’ says Anthony excitedly.”

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  • In 2012, Herbalife awarded Powell the Mark Hughes Bonus Award—a large, discretionary bonus that Herbalife awards to top distributors.

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Other Businesses

  • Legal Ace, LLC is registered in Arizona (Filing Number:  L-1331233-4, Articles of Organization attached as Powell Exhibit P).  The Articles of Organization list Powell as a “member” and President’s Team member Tarun Juneja as both a “member” and “manager”, among others.  Powell states that he is a “co-founder” of LegalAce.com on his LinkedIn website, where he describes the business as providing “over 50 common legal document services nationwide including:  Wills and Estates, LLC Formation, Trademarks and Divorce.”  See Powell Ex. B.

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  • Powell’s LinkedIn website also states that he is the co-founder of a business called Dizzler.  See Powell Ex. B.  As described on LinkedIn, “The Dizzler Playable Media Search Engine (‘Dizzler’) is a technology developed, owned and operated by IDV8, Inc. (‘IDV8’), a privately held corporation headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ.  Dizzler provides an easy way for users to both find and enjoy an unlimited supply of music, videos, and other multimedia content in a single, fun and safe environment.”  See http://www.linkedin.com/company/dizzler.com?trk=company_name.

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