MonaVie Scam? |
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[MonaVie has threatened legal action against me twice in an attempt to prevent you from reading this article below. Probably more important, the 3600+ comments which follow this article are jam-packed with research. While the organization of the comments are not ideal, you can find a subset of that information in a more organized form at the MonaVie Scam website.]
Is MonaVie a Scam?
Is MonaVie a Scam?
Was my wife targeted to buy snake-oil? Hundreds of people weigh in.
My wife is an active member in a nation-wide, young adults group. I am a member as well, but I'm not nearly as active (lack of time, plus my Laziness kicks in). The groups' goals are very noble. They aim to help members with public speaking and event planning skills while raising money for charity through local businesses. Recently my wife went to a meeting and was gone longer than usual. I got a little concerned, so I called her to find out how the meeting was going. It turned out that it wasn't a typical meeting any more - one of the members had invited some business acquaintances of his. When she got back, she told me about the meeting. It turned into a presentation of an energy/antioxidant juice called MonaVie.
About MonaVie
This juice is a blend of 19 juices with the most referenced being the açaí (a-sigh-eee) berry. The açaí berry supposedly has many, many antioxidant properties. I like to be as healthy as I possible, so why wouldn't I incorporate MonaVie into my diet?
The Price of MonaVie
The business behind the juice detracts from its value. The juice itself is not cheap. It's $40 a bottle with a bottle lasting only around one week. That means you can expect to pay around $175 a month for this juice. For many people, that's a significant car payment. For this kind of money, one would expect some sort of guarantee, perhaps a popular, publicly-traded, pharmaceutical company standing behind it. The company also doesn't publish how much of the acai berry is each bottle.
MonaVie and Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
Beyond MonaVie juice being expensive, it is sold by distributors who are compensated in based on a multi-level marketing structure. Some of you familiar with Amway or Quixtar might understand how this works. For those who are new to multi-level marketing, the goal of the organization is to recruit more sellers and "incentivize" them for recruiting them. I'm not a big fan of such systems, it seems like the founders of the company always make a fair amount, and the people who join later end up with few sales and no one else to recruit.
The people the other night were trying to coerce my wife to buy two bottles, at nearly $100, and potentially become a distributor. My wife balked at such a thing, largely because she knew that I would want to do some research before spending that kind of money. They ended up giving her two bottles of juice to try for free. I fear that my wife may notice a placebo effect and grow a taste for the expensive juice.
MonaVie: Perhaps not a Scam?
Is it possible that it could work? Well Wikipedia references that Red Sox players Jonathan Papelbon and J.D. Drew as fans. As Red Sox fans ourselves, this is high praise. I read an article from Fortune magazine that had high praise of MonaVie coming from Sumner Redstone. That's a very influential person and a very influential magazine. I did find one scientific piece of research, a PDF by AIBMR Life Sciences (update: it seems to have been removed from the site). The clinical research shows that it does indeed deliver more antioxidants than a placebo (update: in the comments it has come out that the researcher of the study was supplying MonaVie with its acai - sounds very biased to me). However, it doesn't compare to less costly solutions, like a multivitamin, V8 Fusion Acai Berry
Update: There have been thousands of comments here... I urge people interested in making a decision about whether to buy or sell MonaVie to read them.
Further Reading from MonaVie Scam:
- MonaVie Medical Testimonies are Pointless - A lot of visitors here leave a testimony about how MonaVie may have been responsible for helping them with some medical conditional. These should not impact your decision whether or not to buy MonaVie and it's explained why here.
- MonaVie Lies about the ORAC score of MonaVie?
- Oprah Sues MonaVie
- Men’s Journal Proves MonaVie Lacks Nutrition
- MonaVie vs. an Apple (Hint: the apple wins easily)
mona vie, mona vie scam, MonaVie, monavie scam
... and focuses on:MonaVie
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It seems that with over 4500 comments people are finding this page slow to load and difficult to leave additional comments on. You can find a nearly complete archive of comments here. and can click the "Older Comments" link above for the most recent ones. I highly recommend reading them before posting. There's a high chance your concern has been addressed already.
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Joshua Taratuta,
We encountered this exact same argument from a distributor named Rasheed (MonaVie distributor #2471942) on the site of this. Start reading the comments at around #113 (yes it requires scrolling) here: http://www.juicescam.com/warren-buffetts-pampered-chef-and-monavie/.
He said the same thing… the product doesn’t really matter. He’s selling the opportunity. Unfortunately that’s pretty much the definition of it being a pyramid scam. You don’t have to believe me, but have a look what the FTC has to say:
You are admitting that you are involved in propagating an illegal pyramid scheme. When Rasheed realized this (see his comments) he realized that he was lied to by team… see comment #121.
There was one more point that I meant to make. Would you say that breaking the law (again see the FTC note above) is the Christian thing to do?
Yahweh doesn’t approve of pyramid schemes. RA might though.
Oh dear. I fear we may have lost another one to the dark side.
Lattimore. I am Humiliated and we haven’t met..welcome back and may I say, I do believe I am in love. I was laughing so hard at your “AWESOME PILLS” post, I pee’d a little.
Joshua. Listen to me. I WAS involved with MV. You WILL lose money, you did not get in to this scheme early enough. The reason I started was because I was told it was a nutritional replacement. No more vitamins! Woo hoo! NOT TRUE. I believed that this would be SO GOOD for my friends, colleagues and family! I would improve their health (by the way, that SHOULD be the reason that you are flogging this crap…at least I went into it with true “Christian” intentions, unlike yourself) and actually SAVE them money because they wouldn’t have to buy fruits, vegetables OR vitamins (or at least not nearly as many). I ending up feeling horrible guilt for having conned these people into drinking the juice as a lot of them did it on my word, and were not interested in the business end. How do you POSSIBLY justify that in ANY way? I am not a Christian, but I know the difference between right and wrong. I know, I know, Step 2 is that they will tell you that if you flog this crap onto someone else, you will potentially be helping them save their own lives by making them fistfuls of cash. I did not witness this with any of the people involved. In fact, the people that got me in and have been slogging away for years and they haven’t progressed beyond where they were when the got me involved. They just keep getting new recruits to fill the spots where the 70% dropped out. It won’t get better because of all the bad press they have been getting.
I have a little experiment for you. Tell them you are quitting and see if they are still interested in motivating you, changing your life, being your friend. See if they will continue to maintain ANY sort of a relationship with you. I GUARANTEE they won’t even give you the time of day.
Latest acai (not Monavie, sorry) news is that the FTC have ordered several companies to cease trading for their promotion of Acai supplements.
No connection?
Well yes, actually. The FTC have videoed the promo material which contains such classic phrases as;
“Acai has been scientifically proven to help people lose up to 5 times the weight loss of other products”..
or similar. There’s about 5 minutes of this bilge.
Listen to the avatar and it’s exactly the same rubbish that pours from the mouths and pens of the MV distributors that Vogel specifically, has been recently cataloguing!!
Links:
http://ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023028/index.shtm general list
http://ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023028/100816centralcoasttro.pdf specific banning order with defendants’ names.
http://ftc.gov/opa/videos/acai/index.shtm THE VIDEO!
Let’s hope that the FTC are now beaming in on Monavie. Their self-proclaimed pyramid of distortion surely merits closer investigation and the thousands of reasoned comments in these pages should provide heaps of evidence.
Ok I’ll be brief,
I’m a distributor for Mona Vie. I personally like the product regardless if Mona Vie was a MLM or not. It’s helped me sleep a little more soundly.
However, I do NOT like how I’ve been asked by my up-line to recruit my friends and family.
I just feel its the system and training is done wrong. I don’t feel like burning bridges to make money or not.
Strangely,
Awesome links. I have been offline for a couple of days, but I meant to share this link that my contact with the FTC sent me: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/08/acaicolon.shtm. The FTC obviously doesn’t comment on any on going investigations so I don’t know anything they may be preparing against MonaVie.
I got the new Inc. Magazine today. It has the 2010 top 500 fastest growing private companies. In 2009, MonaVie was included which a lot of distributors took as justification of the juice. However, I couldn’t find MonaVie in the 2010 list at all.
I suspected this was likely to happen when I wrote about how it is a fastest-growing list here: http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-and-inc-magazines-500/.
This is especially true because interest is fading in MonaVie
Oooh…not on 2010 Inc 500??? There goes that sinking ship. Great find!
Wikipedia’s Facts Get in the Way of Monavie’s Marketing
I just found this pathetic plea from a distributor in Chatham, Ontario who is whining that people won’t buy Monavie because of the criticism in Wikipedia’s article. His solution? Take out the facts and turn the article into a marketing brochure:
“I just wanted someone to check into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonaVie. I have been involved in the company for quite some time and have found the product to be helpful with some health problems I’ve faced my whole life. I’m seeing some irrational allegations posted on that wiki page, which are backed up with the appeal to false authorities fallacy. There is a possibility that most of the information on that page was posted by persons who were involved with MonaVie but were unsuccessful in the business end of it. I’m just tired of the fear that is associated with using this product, given that if I even mention it to my peers I get insulted by people quoting your wikipedia article. What I propose is an article that explains the nature of the company, the products, the MORE project charity, and a section at the end explaining any criticism about the company. It appears that a majority of the article is criticism which is unjust. Thank you for hearing me out, and I hope to see a different article up in the near future. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.8.146.147 (talk) 13:37, 19 August 2010 (UTC)”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk#MonaVie_Wikipedia
The Wikipedia editors don’t cotton to this suggestion however:
“I could be wrong, but the sections of the article critical of MonaVie seem to be generally well referenced with reliable resources. These include what appear to be peer reviewed academic papers as well as links to articles published by well regarded publications Darigan (talk) 14:31, 19 August 2010 (UTC)”
That Wikipedia article looks pretty accurate to me. It seems to me that a lot of the information uses very well-regarded resources (as opposed to this distributor’s claim of “have found the product to be helpful with some health problems I’ve faced my whole life.”
If anyone can find something from this website or JuiceScam.com to add to the criticism section, please feel free to add it ;-).
An anonymous tipster sent me an article about Dr. Joe Schwarcz Warning Against Acai Health Claims…
So go read up…
Matt-
So why would anyone want to get involved with a company that’s had SO many legal issues??? For instance when I was a distributor everyone asked me about the legal problems and said they didn’t want anything to do with it. Bottom line, how are you supposed to spread your product when the damage is already done??? They do their homework after being shown the plan and all they come back with is with all these legal issues….and on top of that, cost.
hey, if Joshua Taratuta is still around i would be very interested in hearing his thoughts on mv being a pyramid scheme. I would like to know if he still believes that “the team” is being honest with him after he’s seen what the FTC considers a pyramid scheme.
I also want to bring this to Joshua Taratuta’s attention.
Gennarino & Margaret DeStefano who used to be Blue Diamonds (check that supposed income on Mv’s IDS) are personal friends of mine and they dropped out of MV 4 months ago because their attrition rate was over 80% and they lost ALL their MV income!
BUT…wait…take a look at Brig Hart’s website and you will see that Gennarino & Margaret DeStefano are STILL listed as participating in MV!
http://www.r3global.com/the-system/r3global-gems/
Very deceiving for the public who thinks that Gennarino & Margaret DeStefano are still making money with MV! Not so!!!!!!!!
WasADistributor:
I take it your friends weren’t at the R3Global Family Reunion that happened this past week, no? Have they been shunned and/or de-edified by the organization and Brig after they left?
So….what would happen if I took the article by Dr. Joe Schwarcz to a TEAM Mona Vie meeting on Tuesday night? Gosh, maybe I should attend…I think things are about to get interesting. Now it’s worth my $5.00 to get in.
Switch,
I’m sure they’d say that they don’t need Dr. Joe Schwarcz’ negativity. They’d probably also say that Dr. Alex Schauss knows more about the acai berry because he’s been studying it a lot longer.
They would ignore the fact that he’s paid by MonaVie to come up with ridiculous studies that don’t actually show anything relevant.
LOL….go figure… just sweep it under the rug right? Were you lied to also?
“I have a little experiment for you. Tell them you are quitting and see if they are still interested in motivating you, changing your life, being your friend. See if they will continue to maintain ANY sort of a relationship with you. I GUARANTEE they won’t even give you the time of day.”
The only time of day they give you after you leave is driving by in their nice new shinny Mercedez Benz. Happened right out in front of my own home. Nice!
WasADistributor states “Gennarino & Margaret DeStefano who used to be Blue Diamonds (check that supposed income on Mv’s IDS) are personal friends of mine and they dropped out of MV 4 months ago because their attrition rate was over 80% and they lost ALL their MV income!”
This seems to be the pattern within the upper ranks of Monavie – particularly given Kelly Bangert’s description of his and that of other diamonds’ inabiity to qualify for rank, as well as his business plummeting throughout 2009, his Blue Diamond’s house which got foreclosed on, another Blue Diamond who lost his car and his top leaders who couldn’t even pay their bills.
http://www.mlmwatchdog.com/files/DOCUMENTS/Xowii_v._Monavie.pdf
I was wondering what happened to Josh and what his thoughts were….
For those interested in the juiciest of news… I have a new article about MonaVie attempting to blackmail me:
http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-blackmails-me/
Here’s some turd claiming monavie helped his shoulder, raised his grannie from the bed sans cane, and helped someone get over colon cancer.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/396016-mona-vie-the-drink-of-the-boston-red-sox-la-angels-houston-rockets
here’s a bonus video of three of the most eloquent people ever telling you how monavie will help you recover from injuries
http://www.insidebjj.com/?post_type=external-videos&p=837
It seems like this website was hijacked because of negative talk about monavie.
Take a look at their google cached website and then view what is there now.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6dCotDWsg78J:www.teammonaviescam.com/review-articles/mona-vie-name-in-your-url.html+monavie+threats&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.teammonaviescam.com/review-articles/mona-vie-name-in-your-url.html
Monavie Denies Injunction For Illegal Marketing in Germany…Sort Of
Just came across this very interesting statement from Monavie corporate in reference to allegations that the Monavie marketing plan has been deemed to be unlawful by a court in Frankfurt, Germany. The statement reads as follows:
“We are committed to the Germany market and are excited about the tremendous growth this market has experienced since launching full business operations in May 2010. This past week, you may have heard rumours and allegations that parts of the MonaVie compensation plan are unlawful and that a temporary injunction has been obtained in a Frankfurt court against two MonaVie distributors. MonaVie has not been officially notified of any court proceedings nor have any MonaVie distributors notified MonaVie corporate of any legal proceedings. MonaVie has every reason to believe that such salacious rumours or ungrounded injunctions are retaliation by an unscrupulous competing firm who we believe has infringed upon protected assets of MonaVie and whom MonaVie has sued in order to protect its rights and the business opportunities of its valued distributors.”
It’s interesting to see the slimy manner in which the head office tries to deflect this situation. First they refer to the injuncion as a “salacious rumor” to suggest that it does not exist, but then they also acknowledge that the action may have taken place because they attempted to downplay what they refer to as “ungrounded injunctions” (whatever that’s supposed to mean). And then in a final attempt at redirection, they try to blame both the “salacious rumors” and the “ungrounded injunction” on an unnamed “unscrupulous competing firm”. So, in summary, their stance is essentially this: “we aren’t denying that it’s true, but we’ll call it a salacious rumor anyway; and if it is true, we have someone else we can blame it on”.
Or it could just be that the German courts are smart enough to see a blatantly dishonest pyramid scheme when they see one.
http://www.monavieonthemove.com/germany-en
I had seen that as well Vogel… thanks for the write-up.
I’ve had a pretty busy day making sure my server doesn’t die from all the traffic that Reddit.com is sending me. There is a major Streisand Effect going on with my blackmail article.
Thanks for everyone voting up my blackmail and death threat story at http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-blackmails-me/
You Rock!
According to new sources, the German District Court deemed yesterday that Monavie’s business plan is illegal under deceptive advertising regulations:
“The German District Court in Frankfurt am Main has important parts of the Monavie Marketing Plan forbidden in Germany by its decision of 24.08.2010. It’s also decision against two MonaVie distributors in a earlier case. The decision seems to be even so strong that German Monavie distributors could get up to 2 years in prison, if recruitment will go on.”
http://www.businessforhome.org/2010/08/monavie-marketing-plan-forbidden-in-germany/
I checked the source that the article cited (in German) and ran it through Google translator. The key details are that Monavie’s business plan was deemed to be a violation of 16 para 2 UWG (German Act Against Unfair Competition).
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnowa.biz%2Frechtliches%2Fmonavie-marketingplan-von-landgericht-frankfurtm-verboten%2F&sl=de&tl=en
16 UWG deals with “intentionally misleading advertising”.
http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/literature/heidenreich.htm
According to the German Law Journal, section 16 UWG allows for prosecution of deceptive advertising in the absence of proof of damages (see p. 212, footnote 81).
http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdfs/Vol06No01/PDF_Vol_06_No_01_201-216_Developments_Finger_Schmieder.pdf
The case was prosecuted by the law firm of law firm Berg & Schenk.
So much for Monavie HQ’s previous claim that this was just a “salacious rumor”. They probably knew full well that the injunction had been handed down and were trying to make a preemptive attempt to save face.
By the way, it turns out that MonaVie hurts babies… and they are happy to cover it up…
http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-llc-tries-to-hide-that-their-juice-hurts-babies/
Thanks Aussie!
@WasADistributor
The whole domain is down for http://www.teammonaviescam.com/
This could be a genuine site reworking, or maybe they’ve just moved onto pastures new – or not, as you suggest. Do you know how long it’s been down?
If it’s like it in a day or two, I’ll copy all the cached page and whack it up on my site as it’s another useful resource, if only re-iterating stuff said elsewhere, and if it looks like the cause is a real hack I suggest others do so too (with a suitable explanation, of course).
Okay @WasADistributor . A copy of the web-cached page will appear on my site at midnight! http://strangelyperfect.tv/7896/mona-vie-name-in-your-url/
I know LM had dealings in this area previously (seems an awful long time ago now and now seems small fry compared to blackmail and death threats), but it’s useful to keep the pressure on.
Any trouble, and just publish. Always.
LMAO!!!! Do you sell t-shirts on this site? I think I have my next outfit for the next TEAM Mona Vie open.
Are you serious?! Illegal practices in Germany?!!! 2 years in prison???!!! When are these people going to wake up and realize what they are involved with and stop the brainwahsing? When will this nonsense stop??? Seriously, how much longer can they keep going like this?
In follow-up to my previous post about Monavie’s business operations being deemed illegal in Germany, I found a translation of the relevant UWG section that Monavie violated (i.e. section 16 paragraph 2):
“16 — Criminal advertising:
(1) Whoever with intent to cause the appearance of a particularly advantageous offer, in public announcements or notices intended for a wider group of people who advertise misleading due to false information, shall be punished with imprisonment up to two years or a fine .
(2) Anyone who attempts, in trade, to induce consumers to purchase goods, services or rights by promising they would get either the organizer or by some other person benefits if they encourage others to complete similar transactions, which in turn to obtain the type of advertising such advantages for an appropriate advertising Another customer, shall be punished with imprisonment up to two years or a fine.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gesetze-im-internet.de%2Fuwg_2004%2F__16.html&sl=de&tl=en
Paragraph 2 seems to clearly describe an illegal pyramid scheme. Hence, it appears that Monavie was deemed to be an illegal pyramid scheme under the laws of Germany.
@ Vogel
You may have already answered this question from someone else, but I’m curious. Is Vogel your name, or do you use it because of its meaning?
There’s something very appropriate about a “little birdie” telling us about this German news. Good stuff.
(For those who don’t know German, Vogel is German for bird).
Maybe Vogel will speak for himself, but he looked up the translation for the German text. If it were me and I was picking a clever name like that I’d probably go with a language that I know.
Vogel has no interest in discussing the etymology of usernames or any double entendres therein; at least not on this forum…it’s OT.
Dont’ know if you guys have ever seen this:
http://www.businessforhome.org/
Earlier this year, most of the top earners were all MV. Now there are only a few. I know that isn’t surprising but it is yet another example of MV’s downturn.
Has anyone taken a close look at the revised “PurpleHorror” website? I’d be interested in Vogel’s astute take on some of the claims being made on the opening page, which is basically a full blown ad for MonaVie. Comments such as: “They wanted to bring consumers a healthy product that would help people to feel better, revitalize certain major organs in the body and to help people stay healthy for many, many years.” and this:”Mona Vie is packed full of antioxidants and all of the nutrients each person needs in their daily meal planning.
” and the best for last: “However; there have been documentations where Mona Vie has helped people who were diagnosed with certain types of cancer, and the overall consensus of Mona Vie is that it has helped many people to improve their health in one way or more.” This is quite the transformation of what was once a great source of discussion.
Vogel, that Monavie has been deemed illegal in Germany for violating anti-pyramiding laws is HUGE!
This may well be just the ammunition authorities in other countries need to take a closer look at this company.
I’ve recently been informed that Monavie’s activies have attracted the attention of some groups here in Australia and New Zealand and it was strongly recommended to me that I continue to make attempts to alert the authorities here so that they are forced to act.
In my mind there’s really no doubt that authorities are aware that MLMs such as Monavie are a scam – however I’m thinking it’s their popularity amongst consumers and lack of complaints from same which delays action in stopping these.
Are there any court documents that we can get access to concerning the ruling in Germany?
Yeah Australia tends to be pretty tough with these regulations. I’ve seen the TGA take action on this type of deceptive ‘health-based’ MLM advertising in the past. Keep up the pressure! Hopefully it will pay off soon. Some more media attention sure wouldn’t hurt.
Agree with your point about lack of reporting too. As I recall you’ve previously discussed the key underlying reasons: people are too ashamed to admit (or sometimes even to realize) when they’ve been fleeced; they are conditioned by their upline to believe that they alone bear the responsibility for failure (when in fact the failure is quite clearly due to Monavie’s inherently flawed business model); and, because they defraud their own family, friends, business associates, and fellow churchgoers, it’s extremely difficult to later admit the truth without losing a whole lot of face.
Most people who are not direct victims but just hate what Monavie represents philosophically (and there are many reasons to do so) are not likely to make the effort to file a complaint. That leaves a small contingent of people like us who know the truth and are willing to share it and to pressure regulatory authorities to take action.
We both experienced Monavie the same way — by having some raving lying idiot distributor try to indoctrinate us; that repelled us enough to investigate further and really see what a ridiculous scam it all is. And now a lot of people know what we know. I like to think that we’ve played an important role in making that happen.
As for the court docs, I haven’t seen anything yet but I’m keeping my eyes open. My guess is that we’ll soon hear some more chatter about it in MLM circles and/or another comment from Monavie HQ.
There mmight be a slim possibility that Monavie could work out a deal with the German courts that would allow them to continue operations, but that would presumably involve gutting their business plan. I don’t really see how they could pull it off based on the nature of the offenses, the details of the injunction, and the regulations stipulated in 16 UWG 2.
I came across this biblical quote and it seemed such an apropos reply to the unrestrained greed and blasphemous practices of the Monavie kingpins.
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” (James 5:1-5)
Personal religious beliefs aside, you’ve got to admit that James’s comment was remarkably prescient, especially considering it was written almost 2000 years ago.
Vogel,
As you can see from the article, that’s how I got my initial experience in MonaVie as well. You wouldn’t believe the email that I get every week on JuiceScam.com thanking me for the informative articles.
In other news, I finally wrote up an article about MonaVie Active, Warfarin-Coumadin, and Vitamin K, Glucosamine, and Omega-3s.
I hadn’t realized that the Glucosamine and Omega 3s in MonaVie Active add to the concern.
Monavie’s MORE Project Charity Fails to Comply With BBB
I check the BBB website from time to time to see if the MORE Project will ever release their financial details or a copy of their IRS return showing how donations are spent. According to the BBB, Monavie has declined a request to provide such details about their operations.
“Despite written Better Business Bureau requests in the past year, this organization either has not provided current information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to BBB’s charity standards. While participation in BBB’s charity review efforts is voluntary, BBB believes that this lack of cooperation may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency. Without the requested information, BBB cannot verify if the charity adheres to BBB charity standards.” [Report ID# ID: 22241870]
http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/charity-local/more-project-in-south-jordan-ut-22241870
In a nod to the ultimate level of irony… it seems MonaVie’s new weight loss product is going to be called Reveal.
I guess MonaVie already had a code name of Conceal in their databases.
MORE Project IRS990
MORE finally posted their 2008 IRS990 on Guidestar. http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2008/203/770/2008-203770594-060859ec-9.pdf
They seem to have scrambled to get this together and they filed it very late (May 17, 2010), after having already requested a 3-month filing extension on August 8, 2009, which stated:
“additional time is requested to gather the information necessary to file a complete and accurate return.”
I can’t imagine a scenario in which any properly-run charity would not have this vital information for the IRS at their fingertips. It seems like this effort was rushed, which is fishy. I have little doubt that they eventually filed and posted their IRS990 in response to our research and criticism. Since at mid-2008, we were having a discussion on Lazyman site about MORE’s lack of transparency and failure to post their IRS990 on Guidestar. Juicescam published its first critique of the MORE Project on May 15, 2009.
Interestingly, Guidestar still does not indicate that MORE has filed IRS 990 forms for 2006 and 2007, back when the organization was not claiming to be a US registered 501c3 non-profit and was being run directly by Monavie executives (i.e., Charles Brink, Monavie exec VP and cofounder, served as executive director of MORE until to the appointment of Dallin Larsen’s sister-in-law, Katy Holt-Larsen, in 2008). Allegedly, MORE was founded in 2005 by Monavie executives Dallin Larsen, Randy Larsen, and Henry Marsh, and became a registered 501c3 non-profit in 2008. Funding decisions for MORE are made by an advisory board that consists of MonaVie officers, employees, and distributors.
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/organizational-information
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/our-story
http://web.archive.org/web/20070202203440/www.themoreproject.org/giving.asp
== Where Did The Money Go? ==
According to the 2008 IRS990, MORE took in a little more than $4 million; they paid out about $2.8 million in program expenses and about another $1.1 million in “operating expenses”. These operating expenses included a six-figure salary for Kay Holt-Larsen and a $33,422 “fundraising” fee paid out to AB Funding Solutions, which in reality is the DOB name of Andrea Barnes, who happens to be a MORE Project senior staff member (Director of Development).
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/more-staff
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrea-barnes/7/715/b00
The 2008 expenses also included $173,568 in advertising, which is mystifying considering that MORE’s only obvious advertising initiative is its website, which should cost no more than a couple of thousand dollars. If MORE is advertized at all, it is done so for free by Monavie LLC and its distributors, who use it as a mainstay of their sales pitches.
Other 2008 expenses included $125,713 in professional services (for what???), $91,554 in travel expenses (who is doing all this traveling and why?), $58,219 for “occupancy” (presumably rent paid to Monavie HQ for giving Katy an office and a desk), $47,485 for video and media production (the only MORE videos I’ve seen are those used by Monavie as part of their advertising), $35,000 in investment management fees (seems excessive), and $14,378 for conferences/meetings. Lastly, there was a black hole of $339,642 in unspecified expenses listed in the “other” category, most of which was designated as going towards “management and general expenses”.
So in summary, greater than 25% of MOREs 2008 income got eaten up by operational costs here in the U.S. Of the $4,055,560 million raised, only $2,795,145 of it went, allegedly, towards programs. More than $1 million was spent on non-project related expenses, some of which are highly suspect.
There are no reliable details about how the $2.8 million that allegedly that went towards programs in Brazil was allocated. This should not have included any employee salaries, according to the IRS990, but I suspect that a decent portion may have been spent on undisclosed salaries, since the IRS 990 claims that MORE has an office in Brazil with 50 employees. There is ample opportunity for massive waste and inappropriate expenditures on the ground in Brazil: e.g., money spent on facilities (20 residences in “Village MonaVie” [see 01/20/09 post in Lazyman archives]) for lodging of distributors and other company workers when they visit on photo-op/gawking expeditions; and potentially awarding of supplier/building contracts to Monavie clients, nepotism, and sweetheart deals for people like Sergio Ponce (MOREs Brazilian director, who nobody knows anything about other than he was allegedly a former orthodontist and minister in Brazil).
http://www.networkingtimes.com/nt/08/01/2016.phtml
== How Much Did Monavie Contribute? ==
I don’t see any evidence that Monavie is picking up a significant amount, if any, of the operational costs of the MORE Project, which would contradict Dallin Larsen’s claim that:
“In 2009, MonaVie, its employees, and distributors donated more than $2.3 million to The MORE Project. MonaVie pays all of MORE’s administrative costs, and the executives and distributors travel there often to volunteer.” [NB: the total donations in 2009 of $2.3 million were down more than 40% from the $4+ million claimed in 2008]
http://monavie.net/wordpress/dallin-a-larsen/#respond
The MORE website goes out on the same limb claiming:
“MonaVie is committed to paying 100% of the MORE Project’s operational costs. This means that every dollar donated goes directly to in-the-field operations.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/monavie-and-the-more-project
Monavie even uses the advertising slogan “Monavie Gives Back” in reference to MORE. But none of the claims above are supported by MORE’s IRS990. In fact, and this is the smoking gun, the IRS990 specifically identifies Monavie as a “related organization” but the only subsidy that MORE received from Monavie LLC was (a) “shared facilities, equipment, mailing lists, or other assets” totaling $4,600 and (b) “sharing of paid employees” amounting to $143,846. That’s less than $150,000 total — a far cry from the claims about Monavie “paying 100% of the operational costs” and that “every dollar donated goes directly to in-the-field operations.”
== MOREmonism? ==
Another area of potential concern about MORE is its use as a vehicle to proselytize for the LDS, as this would contravene the charity’s mission statement as stated in their IRS990, which describes MORE as “non-denominational”. Given the very heavy LDS inclination of the Monavie and MORE organizations, it’s difficult to imagine that MORE is not actively proselytizing in Brazil. The Monavie flock is basically being tithed for donations to MORE, and judging by the comments below and elsewhere, MORE seems to be very religious in nature, rather than a non-denominational organization.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/blogs/message-from-dallin-a-larsen
http://www.faithsqueezings.com/2009/12/how-mona-vie-facilitates-law-of-christ.html
But the smoking gun here is this archived copy of MORE’s website from June 2008, which states specifically that MORE was providing bible classes to children as part of the “Believer’s Project”.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080224132251/www.themoreproject.org/believers.php
== MORE-phans? What Is MORE’s Real Mission? ==
Monavie distributors have often claimed that MORE exists solely to serve orphans:
“Each bottle you purchase donates to feed two orphans” [posted by liquidglass]
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/107731-monavie-acai-berry-plus-18-other-fruits-health-make-money.html
“We love it. Don’t forget, Helping to save the orphans of Brazil and helping to preserve the rainforest.”
[Debby and Pete Rondeau]
http://monaviesuccessstories.blogspot.com
“The M.O.R.E. Project not only stands for MonaVie’s Operation Rescue, but to the orphaned children of Brazil, it also represents More Hope, More Health, More Caring, and More Love”
[Becky Lupinek Enoch]
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116699345121
However, Monavie’s mission statement in the IRS990 says nothing about dealing with orphans; it merely says impoverished people/children. Money donated to MORE (at least the fraction of it that makes it to Brazil for projects) does not even necessarily get spent on children (adults are included in the aid programs also, and they are expected to work as volunteers in return).
“Father’s House provides a safe home for young men ages 18 to 25, offering their employable skills. ‘In return, we ask that they make a contribution by volunteering their time and energy to the M.O.R.E Project,’ Brink says. ‘These young men are desperately waiting to be loved, embraced and trusted’.”
http://www.drinkacaijuice.com/index47fb.html?pg=da_more_project
In light of the donation allegedly made by MORE for California wildfire relief, donations may not even necessarily get spent in Brazil.
MOREs mission statement is like a moving target. In 2006, MORE was “dedicated to caring for disadvantaged children in Brazil and around the world.” However, it appears that MORE never spent a penny on children in any place other than Rio de Janeiro. The mission statement in the 2008 IRS990 says that MORE “seeks to provide impoverished people, especially children, with the tools necessary to become self-sufficient” and to “empower those who society has left behind”. A page on the MORE website claims that MORE is “a humanitarian project in Niteroi, Brazil serving to educate and thus help free the peoples of the slums from the evils of the drug gangs that have taken control of their village.” The official mission statement, however, says only that MORE “seeks to change lives and restore families living in poverty in Brazil”. The previously alleged international scope is gone, the charity is not (and never was) focused solely on children, and they aren’t fighting any evil drug gangs.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061105164605/www.themoreproject.org/aboutUs.asp
http://www.themoreproject.org
== MORE Refuses to Comply With BBB Charitable Standards ==
The MORE Project is also currently facing a PR crisis with the Better Business Bureau, which very recently posted the following damning statement about the MORE Project:
“Despite written Better Business Bureau requests in the past year, this organization either has not provided current information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to BBB’s charity standards. While participation in BBB’s charity review efforts is voluntary, BBB believes that this lack of cooperation may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency. Without the requested information, BBB cannot verify if the charity adheres to BBB charity standards.” [Report ID# ID: 22241870]
http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/charity-local/more-project-in-south-jordan-ut-22241870”
== Conclusions ==
I’m all in favor of good charities that support impoverished people anywhere on earth. But MORE does not even come close to meeting the minimum credibility requirements that I would expect of a charity. It’s sketchy, nepotistic, inefficient, and exploitive at best; downright fraudulent at worst. We have no idea who MORE enlists to interact with children or whether anyone affiliated with MORE is even remotely qualified to provide or oversee child education and counseling.
Nor would I trust this organization to provide such services, given the preponderance of fraud artists and assorted human excrement associated with Monavie (notable and relevant examples include convicted child-molester Lou Niles and convicted Christian charity embezzler/tax cheat Phil Driscoll — who served, or are now serving, prison sentences).
http://www.nassaucountysheriff.com/Inmate%20Information%20Search%20Results%20Details.asp?JAILB_BOOKING=3151&JAILB_YEAR=2008
http://www.nassauclerk.com/clerk/clerkcm/case_inquiry/public/nas_pub_pi_queryname_3.asp?caseid=28452&cat=CF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Driscoll#Legal_troubles
I sure wouldn’t donate to a charity that is so closely tied in with product advertising, questionable expenditures, corporate nepotism, LDS proselytizing, and an organization as disreputable as Monavie. But of course, it’s probably safe to say that no one outside of Monavie donates to MORE; just the distributors as an act of tithing, under coercion to earn the attention and good graces of their upline. In essence, the success of their so-called “business” is perceived to be (and may be in practice) at least partly dependent on donating to MORE.
The bottom line is that this is little more than crass corporate exploitation of children, using a charity as camouflage for a pyramid scheme built around an illegally-marketed, fraudulent, low-grade, preservative-laced, overpriced fruit punch. When I see those horrid MORE videos with the tear-jerking music and pouting doe-eyed Brazilian peasant children being played at Monavie meetings, I want to punch someone in the teeth because I think of some of all the reputable charities that could be using those donations for something truly worthwhile and altruistic — not flogging juice and subsidizing a PR campaign for a bunch of a$$holes and crooks so that they’ll look a bit less like a$$holes and crooks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErPFEhR_0t8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfANPxRXsAs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ojvuoH6YI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9rWfyeTmiE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yXdSROpL8&feature=related
So what goes through the minds of these people when they see a nice prospect for M.V. roaming the streets? Better yet, what goes through a the mind of an OLD friend that calls you up and wants to show you the plan? How can they not see how this business really works? Are they really friends??? Funny how not one phone call has been made to contact me or my wife to meet up since we’ve left but yet they seem to think it’s ok to drive by our home in their nice new ride…..
Aussie- I agree that this is a scam. You really wonder how much longer they can go before legal action is taken place here in the states?
Take a look at the bottom of Brig’s website link.
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2010/08/26/onward-upward/
I have been to these Family Reunions and I can tell you that it brainwashes you! If you don’t believe me then read the comments from actual distributors below and you will plainly see how they REPEAT the drivel that is spoken on-stage.
It is quite amazing how perfect Brig’s language is on-stage to keep distributors believing that they WILL be the .5% that will go Diamond.
I agree WasADistributor. I was on Twitter yesterday, and I saw distributor Toni Purdy make a comment about how wonderful the MORE Project was. I pointed out the BBB link that Vogel had just sent (perfect timing as usual Vogel) about MORE not disclosing the financial information that the BBB has requested.
She said that the BBB had nothing negative on that link. I don’t see how one can logically hold that claim.
Then I decided to visit her website: http://tonipurdy.com/Home.html
You can see references to all the things that MonaVie Distributors talk about… Paul Zane Pilzer, Robert Kiyosaki, MonaVie being a “very Christian company”, etc.
Someone educated about MonaVie would easily see through her claims that MonaVie provides vitamins and minerals. At one point she says,
There are no B Vitamins in MonaVie… none that I can find on the label in the article above.
You read her Twitter Bio and it says, “I am an Inspirational Marketing coach.” I guess I didn’t know that being a marketing coach meant spreading outright lies.
Toni Purdy is an idiot. Her reply to you was as follows:
“@juicescam by the way, BBB does not say anything negative, just that they have not enough data gathered. The project is helping hundreds!”
The reason why the BBB does not have “enough data gathered” is because after being given a year to respond, the MORE Project refused to provide the information that was requested by the BBB in order to evaluate the charity and determine whether it meets minimally acceptable standards. Because MORE refused to comply, the conclusion was as follows:
“BBB believes that this lack of cooperation may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency. Without the requested information, BBB cannot verify if the charity adheres to BBB charity standards.”
Sound pretty negative to me. Did I mention that Toni Purdy is an idiot?
Wow Vogel, that was really something about the MORE Project. I don’t know where to begin…
Actually I do know where to begin…
MonaVie had been claiming they were footing all the administrative costs and it turned out to be less than $150K a year. That’s less than they pay Mitch Brigg’s to make illegal swine flu claims.
Next, the More Project seems to squander about 30% of the donations on operating expenses… the same operating expenses MonaVie claims to be footing.
I just did a little math and there are over 90,000 MonaVie distributors on their 2009 IDS (MonaVie must be scrambling to update that as well). These are people who qualified to get a regular paycheck from MonaVie. This is not the 713,139 number of total MonaVie distributors from the math here.
It turns out that the MORE Project (after all their bloated operating expenses) really only uses 2.8M. If MonaVie stuck to their word and covered the other operating expenses, this would amount to roughly $31 per IDS-qualifying MonaVie distributor for the year. Presumably these distributors are paying anywhere from $1500 to $5000 (for themselves or for a family of four) a year for a juice that isn’t shown to be better than V8 Fusion (which comes it at about $100 about $400 a year for the same group). These distributors people get warm “fuzzies” about their less than minimum wage salary and the $31 they donate to charity. If a IDS-qualifying single family just switched juice, they could do more than 100 times more good for the charity of their choosing.
If you use the total MonaVie distributor of over 700,000+ it gets a lot worse. You only need $4 per person to make the difference that MORE Project is doing.
Clearly, the MORE Project isn’t about helping the people of Brazil as much as it is about helping MonaVie recruit more people to pitch their overpriced juice.
By the way, if anyone is interested, anyone can now submit an article to JuiceScam.com:
Submit an article! – If you forget there’s a link in the header of the website.
Everything will, of course, be moderated and only published if I think it has merit.
At the risk of coming across as a Vogel fanboy, I gotta say that I’m constantly impressed by Vogel’s posts, and the extensive research that goes into them. Well done Vogel. Keep up the fantastic work. :)
So much for MOREs claim to be non-denominational!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhLT5xDxaTw&feature=related
They can drop the pretense now and just admit that MORE is a Christian/LDS/AOG missionary organization that’s vigorously indoctrinating young Brazilian children.
And why all the netting around the kids? It looks like a barbed-wired prison camp.
Wow, am I reading this correctly, 4,600 comments? Amazing!! A new record no??
@WasADistributor
http://www.r3global.com/blog/2010/08/26/onward-upward/ and the comments takes the biscuit. Mind boggling. The comment for me that summed it up was from Marie Harland who said,
Er… This’ll be the same product referred to by @LM in the incoherent dirge from Toni Purdy (whom @Vogel rightly called “an idiot”) which has no B vitamins yet cures everything because of it’s implied B-vitamin content…? Eh?
All I can say is that these must have been very, very bad mood swings that Toni had.
And now they’ve turned into confused delusions!
Her big promo video bloke, Paul Zane Pilzer, has a typical self-aggrandising Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Zane_Pilzer
There are no less than FOUR WARNINGS about the information on him because there are no external or clarifying references at all! He obviously wrote it himself (IMHO).
Of course, all of this is typical of everything we’ve seen about Monavie:
Bizarre testimonials.
Spurious knowledgeable folk rolled out to give an air of authority to something.
Inaccurate and self-contradictory scientific “proofs”.
Lying “proofs”.
Fake “proofs”.
Proof by association.
That Failure,
is due to lack of belief in god.
is due to lack of teamwork.
is due to lack of self-belief.
We are charitable(implies good), and because we are christian (again, implies good), we can give back to the poor people in the jungle (implies no-one else does).
This last has now been stunningly revealed by @Vogel for what it truly is. In his huge research piece above, MORE Project IRS990, he proves that the whole thing is a financial sham as the figures simply don’t add up! From top to bottom, beginning to end, we see it as simply another income source for the Monavie chiefs.
In monetary terms, anything going to the “poor kids” is simply a loss-leader to boost their already gross incomes.
After all(thinks then Larsen-ists), why fleece good old Americans alone, when we can fleece Americans and poor jungle folk together, but make it appear that we’re helping the poor jungle folk – and then the Americans won’t notice?
It’s a stunningly brilliant plan, only flawed by the US Gov’s need for record-keeping and income tax returns.
But that seems to be the plan as well.
Just delay, like Fabian, then make a quick getaway, like Dillinger, just before the implosion. That’s my take on the contempt with which the MV business has for its homeland.
Christian? My arse.
Unbelievable on the MORE project….what lies are they going to come up with now? How can they hide this? They’re all one big lie. The sad part is my old uplines will still tell me differently….and will still argue the fact that I made the biggest mistake of my life by leaving TEAM Mona Vie. Thank you Lazy Man for all your help in spelling out the facts here.
Monavie Commits Charity Fraud Through MORE Project
Aside from the blatantly false claims made by Monavie LLC (and Dallin Larsen personally) that they pay 100% of the operating costs of the MORE Project and that every dollar donated goes directly to support in-the-field operations, I have been reviewing some even more blatantly fraudulent claims alleging that the company donates a fixed percentage of all sales to the MORE Project. This too is an outright lie.
“MonaVie is also giving back to the people of this region through a charitable initiative. Every time you purchase Mona Vie, a portion of the proceeds will go to the M.O.R.E. Project, which stands for MonaVie’s Operation Rescue.” [Jon Conti, Blue Diamond Distributor]
http://www.mvbwell.com/amazon.html
“MonaVie is also giving back to the people of this region through a charitable initiative. Every time you purchase Mona Vie, a portion of the proceeds will go to the M.O.R.E. Project, which stands for MonaVie’s Operation Rescue… A portion of the profits from every bottle of Mona Vie sold will be donated to the preservation of the Brazilian Rainforest.” [Carol Gywnn Thompson, DC; Oxnard, CA]
http://www.drcarol.net/5.html
“25% of every bottle preserves our Rain Forest which provides 20% of our earth’s oxygen…25% of every bottle supports the ‘MORE PROJECT’ in Brazil.”
http://www.emeraldcoastbingo.com/11.html
“Every bottle sold helps to change the world for the poorest of the poor in Brazil.” [Rick Parlante, Blue Diamond distributor]
http://www.themoreproject.org/more-project-expeditions/
“Every time you purchase MonaVie, a portion of your proceeds will go to the M.O.R.E. Project” [“Drs.” Mike and Leslie McClellan (chiropractors); Southside, AL]
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7648673/Monavie-Flyer
This wretched scam needs to be shut down NOW! As if that weren’t bad enough, I also found this whopping lie posted by none other than Monavie kingpin fraudster and Blue Diamond distributor Kevin Vokes (cited in 2007 by FDA for illegally advertising Monavie as a disease treatment).
“Part of the mission of the MORE Project is to take members of our Medical Advisory Board along with a group of volunteering MonaVie distributors into Brazil each year on humanitarian expeditions. During these expeditions our doctors will provide necessary medical services to the children while caring MonaVie distributors will provide a lot of love.”
http://www.acai-berry.com/content/cause.html
Two major points of contention here. One, Monavie’s so-called medical advisory board (which no longer exists, assuming that it ever did) never made any such humanitarian mission to provide medical services, nor was the provision of such services ever part of the MORE Project’s mandate. Second, I am surely not the only one is repelled by the notion of Monavie sending its distributors to Brazil to “provide a lot of love” to children. This sounds more like an ad for an illegal third-world child-sex junket than a relief mission…seriously! Monavie distributors are not qualified nor can they be trusted to “provide a lot of love” to children. I keep thinking of Monavie’s notorious fake-doctor Lou Niles, who is now serving time in prison for felony child molestation (his second sex offense), and it makes my blood boil to think that he is the type of distributor who could be “providing love” to the kids being housed in the MORE compund in Brazil.
http://www.nassaucountysheriff.com/Inmate%20Information%20Search%20Results%20Details.asp?JAILB_BOOKING=3151&JAILB_YEAR=2008
http://www.nassauclerk.com/clerk/clerkcm/case_inquiry/public/nas_pub_pi_queryname_3.asp?caseid=28452&cat=CF
MORE sells expeditions to the MORE Project so that distributors can go “provide a lot of love” to these dirt-poor Brazilian children without any form of vetting. http://www.themoreproject.org/give-more/donate-your-timeexpeditions
Again, this notion disgusts me. I would donate generously to any charity that offers to protect Brazilian children from interactions with Monavie distributors.
Here are the people who allegedly once served on Monavie’s medical ad board.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:78Ko6c-yUUUJ:iammonavie.com/documents/page_science_team.html+monavie+medical+advisory+board&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Allongo is a Monavie distributor (who bought a fake “Physician of the Year” award from the NRCC); several of the docs are bariatric physicians (weight loss specialists), and two aren’t even medical doctors at all (Carson and Rinn).
Found this for everyone’s information.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Amway/AUS/hart.htm
Brig & Lita Hart vs. Amway et al..
Despite the overwhelming evidence presented here and elsewhere that profits from the “tools” business far exceed that from the sale of Amway products, most Amway distributors have continued to insist that little or no profit is made from the sale of tapes and rally tickets. (See the AUS “Directly Speaking” and “Tools Scam” articles for more information.) Since it is typically only at the Direct level that they are allowed to participate in and profit from the tools business, the vast majority of distributors are speaking not from first-hand knowledge but are merely repeating what they have been led to believe by those above them who are profiting at their expense. While some at the higher pin levels will allow that some profit is made on the tools, it is usually portrayed as minor–certainly secondary to the profits made from the sale of Amway products. Never, to my knowledge, has someone at the Diamond level publicly admitted that it is rather the tools business that is their primary source of income, and that profits from product sales are minor in comparison. Until now, that is……………
Wow! Unbelievable….so while legal action is taken place pretty much everywhere, the dributors that don’t have a clue on what’s really going on are busting their butt to make their uplines happy. And in return, their uplines are lying through their teeth on telling them to not read what’s on the web…interesting how they use people over and over again!
This is awesome! Front page on MSNBC.com this morning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38958053/ns/business-consumer_news/
Acai berry scam: You’ll lose money, not weight
Free trial isn’t free; diet claims are bogus; payment practices are unfair….
I also posted a link directly to this site from MSNBC.com
Take a look at the bottom.
http://business.newsvine.com/_news/2010/09/02/5030200-acai-berry-scam-youll-lose-money-not-weight-?threadId=1062561&commentId=17125670#c17125670
The MORE Project: Summer Camp for Monavie Distributors and LDS Missionaries
New key findings on the MORE Project, discussed below, prove that: (1) MORE’s facilities (e.g., “Village Monavie”, “Larsen Lodge”) are being used to accommodate vacationing Monavie distributors; (2) MOREs facilities are being used to provide room and board to LDS missionary expeditions (a further contradiction to MOREs claim to be a non-denominational organization); (3) MORE Director Katy-Holt Larsen issued an annual report summary that greatly understated MOREs revenue; and (4) MORE was involved in funding for Haiti relief (in essence, diverting funds from the Brazilian children that MORE is allegedly supposed to serve).
1. MORE’s website offers the following details about the use of their facilities by Monavie distributors:
“We began today by landing in Rio de Janeiro and heading to Village MonaVie, the property where the distributors stay when they visit.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/more-project-expeditions/2010/03/
“When you can, get there and see for yourself – get involved in one of the many volunteer projects going on down there – stay at the beautiful Larsen Lodge and lose your heart to the beautiful people in Brazil.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/more-project-expeditions
Here is a video of Larsen Lodge/Monavie village, a vacation property for Monavie distributors (complete with adjacent swimming pool) in the MORE compound in Niteroi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNsYwv2Hbfw&feature=player_embedded
http://kpopvideo.com/sarang/video-I68Z8PTtAkA
MORE charges distributors $2,500 to $2,750 per person (not including airfare) for a 1-week stay at Camp Monavie’s child petting zoo.
2. This itinerary, from a Utah-based Mormon youth missionary service, the Alliance for Youth Service (AYS), outlines the details of a 2-week missionary service expedition to the MORE Project compound in Niteroi, Brazil (these missionaries are charged $2,295 a head for this mission).
http://www.ays.org/documents/ibrazil.pdf
AYS is described as a “faith-based initiative, catering to values held by member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” whose purpose is “to create opportunities to build lasting friendships with members of the church where AYS groups are serving and with peer volunteers and trip leaders.”
http://www.ays.org/about-us/purpose-history
Notice in the itinerary that the event on the first night is the “Niteroi Stake Dance”. A “stake”, roughly the LDS equivalent of a Catholic diocese, is a term used to describe an LDS community of fewer than 5000. A “stake dance” is basically a supervised social mixer for LDS kids.
Check out Mike’s Apartment Tour and you can see an LDS missionary in Niteroi first hand.
http://eldermichaelyoung.blogspot.com/2007/11/mikes-apartment-tour-niteroi.html
3. I stumbled across this statement from Katy Holt Larsen in which she understated MOREs 2008 donation revenue by 50%:
“We jumped from receiving thousands of dollars in gifts during 2006, to a little over $2 million in 2008.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/organizational-information
According to their 2008 IRS990, the MORE Project received more than $4 million in donations. Why on earth would the director understate MOREs revenue to such an extent? Why would she not want people to think that they took in 50% less? Can MORE not show justification for having blown through $4 million? Did Larsen think that potential donors would be put off if they knew the true amount of the donations MORE received?
4. Lastly, I also found this notice about how MORE was basically diverting (at least temporarily) their mission from serving poor people in Brazil to disaster relief in Haiti. Surprising given that MORE is pitched as a charity that supposedly gives back to the people of Brazil.
http://www.pitchengine.com/monavie/monavie-asks-distributors-to-join-haiti-tweet-challenge/43510
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“WasADistributor”….I guess that answers my question on when this news would go mainstream! LOVE IT!
So next question, what is M.V. without acai?
Thanks for the link WasADistributor… it’s actually bring me some nice traffic today.
It is true that the FTC is going after acai berry companies. MonaVie is aware of this (see #4 in this posting on their website).
The house of cards is crumbling…
(Also, don’t forget to read Vogel’s recent exposure of MonaVie’s Summer Camp/charity.)
Monavie Germany: Distributor Markus Homma Served in Legal Proceedings
When reports of Monavie’s legal troubles in Germany first emerged last week, the company responded by issuing a hasty denial, stating that the reports were “salacious rumors” started by an “unscrupulous competing firm” (although Monavie failed to disclose the name of the alleged competing firm) and that the company “has not been officially notified of any court proceedings nor have any MonaVie distributors notified MonaVie corporate of any legal proceedings”.
http://www.monavieonthemove.com/germany-en/?p=180
Yesterday, the situation turned uglier for the company, as Monavie distributor (ID# 2914109) and Markus Homma (a homeopathic quack from the German town of Rheurdt ) confirmed that he had just been served a warning (sent via registered mail) by the German law firm of Schulenberg & Schenk. According to Homma, Monavie had now been informed of the issues, and thus they can no longer stand behind their previous denial that the matter is nothing more than a “salacious rumor” and that they are unaware of any legal action being taken against them.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.mlm-infos.com/ftopic30247.html%26highlight%3D%3Fsid%3D85c3cdfd87b5810dd747a703cfd5162e&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmonavie%2Bfrankfurt%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbo%3D1%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmdo%3D1%26tbs%3Dqdr:w&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgVi189qe5gmpjqRHBQD0JLLzGERA#276467
http://www.mlm-infos.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=11428
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gesunder-mensch.de%2FNaturheilpraxis-Homma
Vogel, I have finally been able to go through your your brilliant posts about the MORE project in detail. I am thoroughly disgusted. I wonder if the distributors who are barely scraping by understand that they are literally paying for the illustrious Ms. Holt to maintain her 6 figure salary to run this “charity”? Don’t get me started on all of the other bogus expenses! What freaking advertising??? A couple of videos? Then there is the black whole of other expenses for over $300,000. Of course, the piece de resistance is that MV states that they absorb all of these “costs”. Seriously? Why aren’t the DISTRIBUTORS demanding answers?? They continue to fund raise at a local level for the MORE project, and send their thousands of dollars in, thinking that they are sending most of it directly to the project. From your numbers, it appears that about half of their revenue is either spent operating expenses or unaccounted for. Unbelievable. They shouldn’t even be allowed to use the term “charity”.
It also boggles my mind that the “expeditions” cost as much as they do? I can do an all inclusive vacation to a tropical island, at a five star hotel, for less then $2500 a week! It appears that they don’t cover even one iota of the distributors costs while they are there slaving for the “charity” and, in fact, may be MAKING money, likely to cover the cost of building the Larsen Lodge. Meanwhile, they are probably using the men at the “Father’s House” as free labour to build the property.
This whole company needs to be so OVER.
oops. Meant to say black “hole” not black “whole”. Not enough coffee.
Humiliated said: “It also boggles my mind that the “expeditions” cost as much as they do? I can do an all inclusive vacation to a tropical island, at a five star hotel, for less then $2500 a week! It appears that they don’t cover even one iota of the distributors costs while they are there slaving for the “charity” and, in fact, may be MAKING money, likely to cover the cost of building the Larsen Lodge.”
How right you are! And the distributors ain’t “slaving” over anything. They spend half their “expedition” time in Belem watching acai berries being picked and most of the rest of the goofing off and playing with “orphan” kids (personally I wouldn’t let them within 10 feet of any child) and posing for photo-ops so that they can go home and lie to prospects about all the great work Monavie is doing. I’ll post some thoughts soon about the inappropriate child groping angle too. Give the scandals in the Catholic Church (and the latest scandal in Portugal described in the news report below), I think it’s unconscionable that these a-hole distributors are allowed to touch children the way they do in a foreign country in their own little private pseudo-religious freak compound. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100903/ap_on_re_eu/eu_portugal_child_abuse_trial
I’ve been away and have just gone through all the comments in my email.
Vogel, as always, outstanding research and information. Aside from all the glaring realities you posted, my initial thoughts were exactly the same as Lazy Man’s…that MonaVie is obviously not paying MORE’s operational costs as they claim to be doing. SCAM.
And one other thing I will add…yes, these “expeditions” are very expensive…so that the MonaVie distributors have a significant tax write off due to their charitable and/or business trip they took.
Vicious circle.
The MORE Project: Two Degrees of Pedophilia
Interesting…I just found this picture of Monavie Blue Diamond Executive distributor James Reinhardt posing with his arm around Sergio Ponce, the Brazilian field director/CEO of The MORE Project, at a “Monavie Field Event”. Lo and behold, the Monavie field event photo posted above that one on James’ site featured James with his arm around none other than repeat sex offender and child molester, Lou Niles.
http://www.drinkacaijuice.com/index020e.html?pg=image_gallery/display&display=274
http://www.drinkacaijuice.com/index32cd.html?pg=image_gallery/display&display=337
Two degrees of separation and many degrees of wrong. More to come later…
Vogel, I remember that we discussed this over a year ago, perhaps more like 2 years ago…Wondering who, in their right mind, would allow someone with this record to be involved with anything to do with children.
Hey…Distributor…Leave Them Kids Alone!
A picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures say, over and over again, that male Monavie distributors really like posing and having inappropriate contact with underprivileged little Brazilian kids in the MORE compound.
http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/49/38/1_95_1253835688ssdda6eacccd0d1f3600f956b55a4b2760.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/01/62/1_95_1253833751ss01c760fd1558fc05f9a81390502fe8cf.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/52/1_30_1244051877ssaf93c9ba739fa19d3e4229f1ea4e560d.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/00/89/1_95_1253834211ssac29565334dc2f3251dafce1b6188e9a.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/43/1_30_1244050844ss39e521ce97c1e2e41fd0bde40e71d6f8.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/00/83/1_95_1253834206ss222ff61aa1cc0903e74f778765696c72.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/27/10/11_127_1269617992ss9261ee772c828cce706fd53dac0fa327.jpg
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http://www.directsellingnews.com/images/uploads/Dallin-Larsen-MORE-Project.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/33/1_30_1244051690ssa6288cef9c6ac7f1a82fc6fc49c1e674.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/00/65/1_95_1253835795ss6f620232709e5a8ab3cc6347ee4652c0.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/59/1_30_1244051558ss5cbb98b82374ac6c828f1f5060c2b8ad.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/35/1_30_1244052550ss7d06d1ee463b048a59a067d2c7573ae5.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/32/1_30_1244053072ssde966bbd4837cb97377b3a41253a5473.jpg
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http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/48/1_30_1244053033ssa6336507546f6b93b5397967302cad24.jpg
Impoverished children of Brazil are not props to be used for photo-ops and Monavie brochures. You don’t touch and grope children that aren’t yours, and you certainly don’t do it with children who are destitute and essentially wards of the state. If these kids need a hug, it should be coming from reliable, properly-trained and thoroughly vetted caregivers and volunteers, not from sketchy Monavie distributors who pay for week long vacations in this human petting zoo.
Seriously…distributors and Monavie execs — get your F-ing groping hands off those children NOW!
The archived comments received a much-needed updating today. For the next day or two, you may see some odd characters for apostrophes and other special characters. If so, they should disappear in a day or two.
So here is one of the factors that may be contributing to the claims about Monavie and autism being made by several of the company’s knot-headed distributors. The source is none other than the evil queen of quackery, Jenny McCarthy, whose book Mother Warriors (aka The Idiot’s Guide to Healing Autism) states the following (p.223):
“The health benefits of acai have been validated by modern science. This superfood contains antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins, phytonutrients, and trace minerals. The popular choice among families who have children with autism has been the Original. For more information go to http://www.thegreatproduct.com/jojo .”
http://www.juicyopportunity.com/?p=488
I forgot to stress Jenny’s point that acai has been validated by “MODERN science” and not that other kind of grunting prehistoric ‘Ugg-smash-rock-with-club’ science (the kind that Monavie and AIBMR generate for instance).
Monavie Uses Testimonials to Promote Juice as Treatment for Arthritis and Sciatica
The people at Monavie HQ are getting even more sloppy…or desperate. I just found the following testimonial from distributor Annie Kramps Touvi (ID# 2237739) posted on Monavie corporate’s new testimonial website (www.changedmylife.monavie.com)
“I started drinking MonaVie Active a year ago and MonaVie EMV as soon as it came out. I started for my sciatica and arthritis (as I am 41 and was not active and taking a lot of ibuprofen). I am now very active as I am giving my body what it needs and deserves. I don’t take ibuprofen as much now.”
http://changedmylife.monavie.com/blog/monavie/0/0/monavie-not-only-changed-my-life-but-my-childrens-lives-as-well
I could have used a subtitle for this post along the lines of “Call Child Protective Services…Abusive Monavie Distributor Feeds Kids Monavie Gel Packs Instead of Fruit and Vegetables”, because this is the other part of Annie’s testimonial:
“I needed to have more energy for my very active children–Michaella, 6, and Jake, almost 2. They both drink MonaVie Essential and MonaVie Original Gel packs. It’s convenient to open the fridge and suck it down. With just 4 ounces a day I it’s like getting 13 fruits and veggies (which are anti-inflammatory). With 2 ounces a day, it’s like my children are consuming about seven fruits and veggies a day and MonaVie is packed with vitamins.”
Hard to believe the Monavie would have the gumption to post crap like this on their website. I guess Monavie HQ also condones Annie’s use of the video of Jason Lyons/Lou Niles (doctor impersonator, child molester, and 2-time sex offender), in which Monavie is promoted as a cure for cancer. Annie tweeted:
“Why #Monavie works!!! #Dr. Lou Niles P2 http://youtu.be/NJTig9SQOR4 This is possibly the best #opportunity you will ever come across!!!!”
http://twitter.com/AnnieMonaVie/status/10534619672
BTW, have any of you noticed that Monavie corporate has been pulling those illegal promotional videos of Jason Lyons and Lou Niles from Youtube because of…get this…”copyright violations”!!!!
http://youtu.be/NJTig9SQOR4
They didn’t seem to care that Niles was standing alongside Jason Lyons pitching their tainted grape juice as a cancer cure, or that Niles is a child molester and currently resides in a Florida prison, or that thousands upon thousands of distributors had used this video to promote the juice and the business opportunity to unsuspecting consumers. No, they didn’t care…but god forbid anyone should violate their copyright!!! Meanwhile, the use of the Niles video by distributors will continue behind close doors and away from the prying eyes of the public. Sick bastards the lot of them.
I have to say, the part that really disturbs me about Annie’s post is when she says “I needed to have more energy for my very active children–Michaella, 6, and Jake, almost 2. They both drink MonaVie Essential and MonaVie Original Gel packs. It’s convenient to open the fridge and suck it down. With just 4 ounces a day I it’s like getting 13 fruits and veggies (which are anti-inflammatory). With 2 ounces a day, it’s like my children are consuming about seven fruits and veggies a day and MonaVie is packed with vitamins”.
In all likelihood, she is just believing what she was told (this is exactly what I was told as well). What is sick is that MV allowed that on their website for other parents to read and put their children’s health at risk. They may stop forcing their kids to “eat their vegetables” or taking a multi vitamin because they believe they are getting their recommended daily allowance of fruits and veggies a day. We all know that 4 ounces a day has the nutritional value of less then one serving of fruits or veggies a day. It is truly appalling that they are getting away with this and they are seriously putting children’s health at risk with such testimonials. I truly worry for the children. They are innocent in all of this.
Yeah, I noticed how she said, “it is like my children are consuming about seven fruits and veggies a day and MonaVie is packed with vitamins.” It seems her definition of “packed” consists of two (vitamin C and K).
Vogel states “Impoverished children of Brazil are not props to be used for photo-ops and Monavie brochures. You don’t touch and grope children that aren’t yours, and you certainly don’t do it with children who are destitute and essentially wards of the state. If these kids need a hug, it should be coming from reliable, properly-trained and thoroughly vetted caregivers and volunteers, not from sketchy Monavie distributors who pay for week long vacations in this human petting zoo.”
I also find it totally unacceptable that these executives and distributors are allowed to have such hands on contact with these children – no doubt none of them have undergone police checks or back ground checks to ensure they aren’t child sex offenders.
Children in these circumstances, who are no doubt longing for contact and affection, are the most vulnerable and least likely to complain if anything inappropriate were to happen – therefore they should be afforded the most protection from predators.
The whole MORE Project is an utter sham and the danger these children are potentially being exposed to sickens me to no end. It’s entirely unacceptable.
I certainly don’t understand how Annie can remotely suggest her children are getting seven fruits and vegetables a day by consuming Monavie – Monavie doesn’t contain any vegetables in the first instance.
Monavie can’t be good for you – it makes distributors BLIND to the facts even when they’re right there in front of them.
Speaking of the MORE Project, I just found yet another very, very disturbing quote — from Black Diamond executive distributors Rob Addie & Onyx Coale (Team Abundance).
““Maybe you want to go to Brazil and love on those kids with the M.O.R.E project.”
http://www.geoffreybodinefrenzy.com/FlyingStart0207.pdf
That’s even worse than the quote from Kevin Vokes describing how Monavie distributors are going on expeditions to “provide a lot of love” to the children in the MORE stalag.
http://www.acai-berry.com/content/cause.html
Combine that with all those Chester-the molester photos, like Mr. Thumbs Up here (is he trying to look like a greasy pedophile on purpose?)…
http://img.monaviemediacenter.com/photovol/volume1/webpics/slideshowpics/14/43/1_30_1244050844ss39e521ce97c1e2e41fd0bde40e71d6f8.jpg
…and these Monavie expeditions sound like something the sick Fs at NAMBLA would offer.
http://nambla.org
Monavie has been leveraging the MORE project as a crass promotional tool for years, ripping off and lying to donors, misrepresenting the charity’s funding sources and mandate, siphoning off funds for board members, and promoting $2500+ petting zoo “expeditions” where potential child molesters can “love on” poor kids in Brazil. This pisses me off even more than their retarded snakeoil juice scam; together, it’s just beyond despicable. If they don’t F off and fade into oblivion quietly of their own accord, then it’s going to be war.
I just noticed this but if you look at all the IDS from around the world, the numbers are exactly the same as the U.S.
http://www.monavie.com/Web/US/en/ids.dhtml
Now how is that possible?
Vogel. I have a question. My understanding is that when distributors travel to Brazil for these expeditions, they are supposed to be physically helping BUILD schools and shelter for the Brazillian children and/or community. They make is sound like “Habitat For Humanity” or something? Did you come across even ONE picture or video where they were actually working? With other organizations you actually see people with hammers and nails, pitching in. All I see here are Brad and Angelina wannabes, except for the fact that no one gives a sh*t who these distributors posing with these poor kids are.
Regarding this “charity” being non-denominational, what a joke. They aren’t even attempting to hide that it is a Christian based organization (I can’t call it charity…). And, how many pedophiles have hidden behind the veils of religion? It is too overwhelming to think about.
Humiltated said: “Vogel. I have a question. My understanding is that when distributors travel to Brazil for these expeditions, they are supposed to be physically helping BUILD schools and shelter for the Brazillian children and/or community. They make is sound like “Habitat For Humanity” or something? Did you come across even ONE picture or video where they were actually working?”
Good question. Short answer is no, not really. I came across one video in which a few Black Diamonds and execs were posing for some token photo-ops by a dirt pit but that’s about it. The MORE website has a video and photo section; not a single one shows any infrastructural work being done.
Thinking about it logically, it would make no sense from a cost-benefit standpoint to have unskilled Monavie distributors spending all that money to fly to Brazil and work at the MORE compound when they could simply stay home, donate the fee that they would have otherwsie paid for the expedition, and have MORE use the funds to hire inexpensive skilled local laborers in Brazil to do whatever jobs need doing.
From what I can gather, the $2500 week-long “expeditions” include only a few days at the MORE compound; the rest of the itinerary is devoted to cruising and fishing on the Amazon, visiting the acai market in Belem, and watching acai berries being picked (an event staged for the tourists). The portion of the itinerary devoted to the MORE Project could be no more than a few days at best.
It’s all sickening to me. The organization exploits those who are most vulnerable – indigent children – and instead of protecting them, MORE leverages them as entertainment for Monavie distributors and as fodder to enlist new recruits into Monavie’s corrupt juice business. You will seldom see a pitch for the Monavie “business opportunity” that doesn’t involve a lot of self-congratulatory cooing BS about how Monavie is saving “orphan” children in Brazil.
The MORE Project, just like Monavie’s inferior juice products and “business opportunity”, is hyped as being something far greater than it is in reality.
In this video, Katy Holt Larsen says “we want everyone to experience firsthand the Amazon, the berries, see how they are picked and harvested and be able to come experience the MORE Project.” Notice that the word “work” is never mentioned, presumably because they don’t ever do any.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj8LIwbO2JA&feature=related
BTW, one of the links I posted yesterday (a PDF posted by Geoff Bodine in which Onyx Coal and Rob Addie talked about “loving on” the kids at MORE) is inoperative. Here is another link to the document. Notice how prominently the MORE Project is positioned throughout the business pitch.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:H8TfqGvnU4MJ:www.geoffreybodinefrenzy.com/FlyingStart0207.pdf+%22the+more+project%22+bodine+filetype:pdf&hl=en&gl=us
I also found yet another inconsistency about MOREs revenue in this statement from Katy-Holt Larsen. Regarding MORE’s 2009 revenue, she said:
7:37 – “In 2009, like Dallin said earlier today, we raised more money for the MORE Project than we have ever raised, and if you are involved with other charities, you know they are struggling; you know they have downsized this year, so we feel so blessed we raised over $3.5 million in 2009.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM_6HFq_utI&feature=related
For the time being, let’s ignore that Holt-Larsen essentially admitted to stealing food off the plate of other REAL charities. According to the 2008 IRS990, MORE raised just over $4 million in 2008; thus, it seems that Holt-Larsen made a false claim that the $3.5 million allegedly raised in 2009 was more than they had ever raised. More importantly, Dallin Larsen claimed that MORE raised only about $2.3 million in 2009.
http://monavie.net/wordpress/dallin-a-larsen/#respond
Wonder why the scammers who run the charity can’t get the numbers straight? One would have to conclude that someone is lying through their teeth, which would be consistent with all the lying about the juice and the business opportunity.
I also noticed that the kingpins don’t tell the same story about the MORE Project’s mandate. We’ve seen how distributors were pretending that MORE was basically an orphanage, and Katy Holt-Larsen says as much in this video. In this syrupy speech, from the 2008 Monavie Anaheim distributor convention, Katy refers to Monavie serving “orphans” (notice also the particularly revolting shot at the beginning of the video where Dallin ‘Uncle Fester’ Larceny is taking a giant swig from a Monavie bottle while standing on stage behind sister-in-law Katy during her MORE pitch):
00:26 – “And to go into the Monavie village – this is the village that will house our orphans – it’s not built yet; it’s in the process of being built.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yXdSROpL8&feature=related
But according to Randy Schroeder’s comments in this video from December 2009, MORE is nothing more than a daycare center and it seems that the kids MORE allegedly serves are not orphans at all.
01:45 — “Families start by bringing their children here for daycare”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMfYMWs0Liw&feature=player_embedded#!
And in this video, Katy actually says outright that the kids MORE serves have families (ie, they are not orphans).
09:00 – “This is our sponsor a child program…get your child that you can sponsor…when you go down to the MORE Project -– that’s the really fun part –- is you’ll be able to meet them in person; meet their family.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM_6HFq_utI&feature=related
And while Katy in 2008 referred to Monavie Village as a facility that would serve orphans, the MORE project website describes it as a housing facility for visiting Monavie distributors.
“We began today by landing in Rio de Janeiro and heading to Village MonaVie, the property where the distributors stay when they visit.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/more-project-expeditions/2010/03/
The cover stories for the MORE Project are quickly unraveling at the seams.
Monavie: Virtually Delicious?
Who was the genius who decided that it was a good idea to have a “virtual tasting party” online. Will they be offering virtual hors d’oeuvres too? My mind boggles at the stupidity of Monavie’s sales initiatives.
http://www.tasteandparty.com/Events/tabid/77/ctl/View/mid/437/ItemID/59/language/en-US/Default.aspx
00:26 – “And to go into the Monavie village – this is the village that will house our orphans – it’s not built yet; it’s in the process of being built.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9yXdSROpL8&feature=related
fill up on Mona Vie for 2 dollars…..LMAO. Hey what a deal, so instead of going back to your hotel room and sucking it down there, they want you to fork more cash out to suck it down there with the big boys. Classic Mona Vie.
Vogel – as we all know, the underlying agenda with those “tasting parties” is the promotion of the business (hence, why they’re also referred to HBR’s – that is, Home Business Review).
The illegal and bogus testimonials are the most rampant during these “tasting parties” and it’s where prospects are qualified for their suitability for the business.
However, my experience with my own friend’s sponsor was that once they realise you’re not interested in the “opportunity”, they lose interest in attracting a customer also – particularly given the big dollars promoted aren’t in making retail sales, the big dollars are in recruiting a huge downline.
More Dishonest Fundraising by Monavie’s MORE Project
I just can’t believe some the asinine claims that distributors are making to coerce donations for the MORE Project. Case in point is this idiotic pitch by distributor Brandon Heidemann:
“Dear Friends and Family…’Climbing a mountain’ is a metaphor that is used universally to conquer a great feat. Well, that is something that I have decided to do. There is a family in Brazil that is living on the streets of their city in which 97% of the children between the ages of 7-11 are involved in prostitution and drug trafficking. We are partnering with our MonaVie Team and The MORE Project (MonaVie Operation Rescue) to raise $16,000, by January 7th, which is the amount required to build it. This is crazy to attempt to raise $16,000 in less than a week but with Christ all things are possible and I believe that when we as Christ’s body work together, impossible things can and will take place!… 100% of the money raised is going straight to building this family’s house and it is all tax deductible.”
http://thejuicebaby.com/Dear_Friends_and_Family.doc
How can anyone be stupid (or dishonest) enough to extort charitable donations on the basis that “97% of the children (in Niteroi where the MORE compound is located) between the ages of 7-11 are involved in prostitution and drug trafficking”, and to use the name of Christ to bolster the lie. Brandon has a lot of atoning to do for telling such blasphemous whoppers.
Oh, and Brandon the liar was one of the recent winners of Monavie’s ‘Bronze to Emerald Promotion”. I wonder how many lies it takes to win that dubious distinction.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/bronze-to-emerald-promotion-winners
Since distributors have decided to jump on the Dallin Larsen, Ernst and Young, and Entrepreneur of the Year angle recently, I decided to write up the following article:
Dallin Larsen, Ernst and Young, and Entrepreneur Of The Year