Something Private Aye found on the internet...
http://mlmresourcesmalaysia.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/read-the-report-on-usana/
Askyou Says: April 26th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Usana is a small company but talk big. They fall under small business catgeory for the Forbes and Businessweek rankings that they frequently quote. The difference between Usana and Amway is like Luton Town FC and AC Milan!
Usana’s 2 main argument is that 1. They have GMP manufacturing 2. Lyle Macwilliam report on nutrition ranks them no. 1
Lets see:
1. Nutrilite, Amway manufacturing facility is beyond GMP. We also have GAP (good agricultural practice), our nutrilite manufacturing plant is 500,000 sq ft vs Usana’s plant is only 180,000 sq ft. Amway;s main manufacturing area covers 1.6 km stretch in Ada, michigan … talk about HUGE. How about Nutrilite’s 7,000 acres of certified organic farms in 4 different locations in US, Mexico and Brazil? We have Scientific Advisory Board members from the world’s foremost researchers, scientists, in nutrition, genetics etc. Usana’s board consists of GENERAL PRACTITIONERS & PEDIATRICIANS who are Usana’s distributors with financial interests in promoting Usana !!
2. If we can proof the Macwilliam report to be flawed, and biases study, then 95% of damage is done on Usana’s credibility. That’s exactly what is is … a Usana sales/marketing tool to assist dumbos to sell their products without much thinking .. just show and tell. Nutrilite is the leader in food supplement sales worldwide … last year USD 2.9 billion (Amway total USD 6.4 b) , source: Euromonitor International and Nutrition Business Journal. We’ve been around for 71 years, the only one to grow, harvest, process on our own certified organic farms. Usana doesn;t have much to show… so have to CREATE a 3rd party publication to endorse their products. Anyone with BRAINS can see that after reading the Report.
The price of Usana’s stuff is x2 more expensive than Nutrilite. Where is the logic?
A flawed and "unscientific" report Says: April 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Spot on! Anyone with common sense can see that the report has only 1 fuction:
Act as a sales gimmick for Usana distributors to use as a “credible third-party” resource.
I’m a scientist by profession, and the comparisons done are definitely not scientific in nature. It is a flawed study with many mistakes and errors. Reading Macwilliam’s background, I have no doubt that he is not qualified to be speaking in such detail on nutritional science. The charts and graphs may look fancy, but means nothing when you consider the basis of the study is flawed, and the application is inconsistent. No where is this study do you find any references to clinical research. A comparative study based on opinions and averaging them out is not scientific.
Tim Junk Says: July 23rd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Flawed? Read the basis for the study … ask any credible scientist - method is at best, careless. At worst - fraudently misleading. Average of opinions of health writers - is not scientific! Ray Strand one of the “independent” authors who gave opinion - his wife is a high-ranking Usana distributor! her picture came out in front cover of a Usana magazine (inside we can see Ray next to her). Listing tiny amounts of expensive ingredients also do not make Usana vitamins better!
Biased? Macwilliam clearly has something to gain financially from promoting Usana. He is currently going on tour - promoting his book at Usana functions. If he is aware people are questioning his integrity, he should try and limit his exposure at Usana functions. Last i counted he spoke at 25 big Usana celebrations & gatherings in a 3 month period! He was also a usana board director until 2003 - when he resigned. Covering his tracks i believe. His book is being sold at bulk discount - cheaper if you buy 500 copies or more. Who would buy such a volume - unless you design it to be a sales tool for a network marketing company. The report is published in the languages for the countries Usana operate in - for example which scientist will produce a specific report for New Zealand/Australia, Mexican (in Spanish) - comparing products in NZ/Aust and Mexico to Usana? The back of the 3rd edition, had testimonials/comments by readers - who ALL happen to be high-ranking Usana distributors!! is it a coincidence .. or by design? Not 1 or 2 … 6 comments from 6 high ranking distributors!! Check frauddiscovery.net. They even list these medical doctor’s DISTRIBUTOR NUMBER, Usana rank & income! not independent medical doctors … but people with financial incentive to promote Usana! Ladd Mcnamara - advisor to usana - does NOT have a licence to practice medicine, and recently quit the board due to bad press. VP of research Tim Woods - does NOT have a PHD in biology as stated in Usana official bio - but FORESTRY!, Dennis Waitley - usana board member, does NOT have master degree or PHd from universities he quoted. Too many loose ends, too many red flags - Usana is a scam.
Overpriced products + dubious endorsements + lying leaders = Crumbling empire.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Interesting piece on Lyle Macwilliam's report
Am I Going to Have to Eat my Hat....? The “Dreamstealer” Strikes Again!
Last May I wrote a piece about the perils and weasel ways of Multi Level Marketing (MLM) in which I offered not only to eat my hat, but to sign-up under them if any of my friends had found a good MLM company, selling anything I would consider remotely worthwhile.
As I mentioned here a couple of weeks back, I was taken up on this by my friend Raylene Radiance in Hong Kong, who accused me (Moi?!) of being a cynic and took me to task for negativity in general and having it in for MLM in particular.
“ I know what you think about MLM, and I know there are some bad apples, BUT..... I am working with this great company with the most marvelous product that is REALLY REALLY different.....”, she said. “If you check it out, I just know you will be convinced. I’ve booked my ticket and I’ll be coming to Bali in six weeks time and I ‘m really looking forward to seeing you eat your hat and to signing you up. I’m not sure which I’ll enjoy more”, she added maliciously.
Now as I’ve already shared, my friend Raylene Radiance is no New Age airhead, as her assumed name might have some of you out there thinking, and I normally have a lot of time for what she has to say. So as a man of my word and in the hopes I would be spared eating my best Panama or DKNY cap as well as being swallowed up in the maw of Raylene’s downline, I mumble something about looking into it.
“ Wot’s it called ‘ven?”, I says.
“ USANA”, Ta-Da! she says “they produce the best ever supplements, including a TURRIFIC multi. Doctors all over the world are raving about it. Research shows it’s the No.1. I know you’re going to thank me for this!”, she gushes.
“ Oh yer? Awlright, ‘spose I’ll ‘ave to look into it ‘ven, won’I?”, I manage.
Looking for my “Budget Roller”The thing about this is, over a period of time I’ve already heard about USANA from a number of people I know who are into supplements and MLM and they were saying the same thing. Not only that, I was interested in sourcing another good multi. Now I and my best beloved already use what I am convinced, after 8 years of research and evaluation, is the best multi available anywhere. The Rolls Royce of multis, you might say. But, while it is excellent comparative value in view of its comprehensive nature and formulation, in actual dollar terms it is quite expensive, so it ain’t exactly for dabblers in optimum health. I now wanted to see what else was out there as I knew there were some which, though they may not be as comprehensive, were still very good. The best “budget” multi, as it were. I sourced about half-a-dozen of these matching my criteria. They were all practitioner-only formulations from the US from manufacturers whom I knew were both cutting-edge and totally reliable. They provided the basic vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients for antiaging and disease prevention.
So in the spirit of honest inquiry and to protect my millinery, my stomach, not to mention avoiding a career in MLM, I added USANA to the mix to see how it shaped up.
The Need to Know......I first went to USANA’s website. Not as easy as you might suppose. As with most MLM companies you find yourself batting about between the websites of hundreds of independent distributors all competing to sell the company’s products and/or sign you up. USANA has about 300,000 such distributors worldwide and, as is usual with MLM, it is not easy to get hard data. After slogging away I was able to establish that USANA offered a little over 20 nutritional supplements, including something called USANA Essentials comprising two formulations, an antioxidant and a multi mineral. This was sold together in the US at a combined cost of US$53.30. What I was really looking for was one single formulation, but it seemed this would have to be the basis of any comparison.
I was initially impressed to find that Essentials was formulated by Dr Michael Colgan, who was hired as a consultant by USANA for the purpose and is highly regarded in the US in the fields of nutrition, exercise and antiaging. I also learned there was an “independent” comparative survey of the top 200 multis which said the No.1 was USANA’s Essentials. At this point I actually started to think this might not be a complete waste of time after all and began to get interested. Even if I had to eat my hat and be a soldier in Raylene Radiance’s downline, I might be on the track of my “budget” Roller.
Alas, it was not to be! The more I looked into it the more USANA looked like any other MLM company pulling the usual dubious stunts to promote itself and offering a range of average and over-priced products, when properly compared to the best that’s out there.
First up, I obtained a copy of the “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” researched and written by self-styled Canadian author, educator and consultant Lyle MacWilliam, who had “trained” as a biochemist and kinesiologist. This was a much slimmer and less impressive document that I had at first imagined and was being sold by MacWilliams’ company at US$15.95 a pop. In it Mr MacWilliam was at pains to point out that there was no corporate connection between his company and USANA. The report evaluated some 400 nutritional products and came up with a final list of 125 comparing them to USANA Essentials and a nutritional “standard”. And, blow me down with a feather, guess what? USANA Essentials was found to be No.1.
So why don’t I buy it? First off, the survey compared two products to one of all the others. This makes a complete nonsense of the methodology and result from the outset, which is patently skewed to favour the USANA product. The only thing valid about this document is that most of the best multis are in the top 20 products.
No Financial Interest....?Next, despite the disclaimer Mr. MacWilliams’ connection with USANA is not at all clear. He admits he is a long term user of their products but does not say, so far as I can see, whether he is a USANA distributor or merely a consumer. Even if he is not a distributor he may well have a vested interest in the company. Any member of his family or one of his employees can be running a USANA distributorship. USANA is a public company and he might be a shareholder. More to the point, USANA has over 300,000 independent distributors. The MacWilliams study says USANA Essentials is the best thing since sliced bread and makes a business out of selling the report or anyone who wants to buy copies at US$15.95 a shot and by the sale of membership giving access to comparative data on competitive products. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that this amounts to a $million business. Just go to one of the major meetings of any MLM company attended by thousands of the faithful. You will soon see there are always a number companies present, all doing a thriving business selling sales and other promotional aids to the throngs of avid MLM’ers there assembled.
Borrowed ClothesSince the name of Dr. Michael Colgan and others are used a lot in promoting the bona fides of both the formulation and the research I next contacted Dr. Colgan and spoke with his wife. What she said was illuminating. Dr. Colgan was indeed retained as a consultant by the company to put together the original formulation. However, as the company grew the company’s sales and management “resented” Dr. Colgan’s continued input on the formulation and dispensed with his services a number of years ago. Part of the termination agreement was that Dr. Colgan’s name would not be used to promote the company. Mrs Colgan was very interested and not at all pleased to hear her husband’s name was being used in this way. In other words having used the reputation of Dr Colgan to establish the product, the company dispensed with his services so they need no longer maintain similar standards. Regrettably, not an unknown practice with MLM or other companies attempting to enter a new market.
Now for the formulation itself.As stated, Essentials comprises two products each containing 84 tablets which at a dosage of 3 tabs per day of each makes a month’s supply at a retail cost of US$53.30. Put the two together and you have a perfectly respectable product. But, I can buy something just as good from a really reputable supplier for about US$30. Now here comes the weasel. Included in the formulation are 15mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid and 12mg of CoQ10. These are indeed important supplements, but they are quite expensive. For them to do you any good you need to take minimum dosages of 250 - 500mg and 60 - 200mg respectively. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book to shove in a tiny and ineffective amount of an expensive ingredient and make a big song and dance about it. Most people aren’t going to spot the scam. Quite apart from that, they are best taken separately and CoQ10 is most bio-available in an oil-based form combined with tocotrienols, a form of Vitamin E. You can’t put oil in a capsule of powder. Any good formulator knows that.
USANA goes on to make much of the fact that their products are pharmaceutical-grade not food-grade and are tested to be bio-available, whatever they mean by that. Well I would hope so! Any product from a reputable manufacturer is also. Yes, thousands of inferior products are on sale everywhere and are neither pharmaceutical-grade nor bio-available, but I’m afraid it is up to you to buy smart and make sure you’re not being stiffed.
There was one more interesting thing I found out along the way about Essentials. What you bought in the US for $53.30 was considerably more expensive if you bought it in Australia or Asia. USANA doesn’t operate in Indonesia but I’m told it is sold here at a cost of Rp 622,000 (US$69.25). Not only that, it is a lesser product and does not contain certain key minerals such as molybdenum, vanadium, boron and smaller amounts of selenium because it is formulated for the Australian market and the Australian government regulates the inclusion of these substances in a multi nutritional supplement. I would be pleasantly surprised if that were something customers in the region were ever made aware of.
An Old TrickGoing through the USANA list I spotted another nasty. They have a product called Gingko-PS costing around US$45.00. These are substances commonly used as cognition enhancers. Taken in sufficient dosages they can do wonders for your short term memory and mental acuity. PS stands for phosphatidylserine and is quite an expensive substance. Ginkgo is an herb. This formulation actually contains 7.5mg of the active ingredient of ginkgo and 125mg of Lecithin. When I tell you that to do any good you need at least 120 mg of ginkgo delivering 42mg of active ingredient and 100mg of PS you may start to get an idea of what a puny formulation this is. And when I tell you that this product doesn’t actually have any PS in it at all, despite the label, but 125mg of Lecithin delivering 0.4% of PS or 0.5mg you may start to get an inkling of how this game is played. I actually queried this with USANA’s management in the US to see if I was right about this and all they could say was “Yes, but trust us, there is PS in it”. And they’re right, all 0.5mg of it! So why don’t they call it Ginkgo-Lecithin then?
So Sorry Raylene!To put it in a nutshell, I don’t think I’m going to have to eat my hat after all and, God be praised, I’m not about to be launched on a new MLM career. It is not that the USANA multi is a bad product, but it is an over-hyped, over-priced, and very average one. No way in the world is it anywhere near the top 50, let alone No.1. I’m even prepared to accept that USANA is one of the better MLM companies, so far as that goes. But in my book, that’s not very far. What this research has confirmed for me yet again is that MLM is an unattractive form of marketing open to all sorts of abuse and misrepresentation, peddling average products at best and appealing to the credulity and financial aspirations of perfectly nice people who should know better.
Last May I wrote a piece about the perils and weasel ways of Multi Level Marketing (MLM) in which I offered not only to eat my hat, but to sign-up under them if any of my friends had found a good MLM company, selling anything I would consider remotely worthwhile.
As I mentioned here a couple of weeks back, I was taken up on this by my friend Raylene Radiance in Hong Kong, who accused me (Moi?!) of being a cynic and took me to task for negativity in general and having it in for MLM in particular.
“ I know what you think about MLM, and I know there are some bad apples, BUT..... I am working with this great company with the most marvelous product that is REALLY REALLY different.....”, she said. “If you check it out, I just know you will be convinced. I’ve booked my ticket and I’ll be coming to Bali in six weeks time and I ‘m really looking forward to seeing you eat your hat and to signing you up. I’m not sure which I’ll enjoy more”, she added maliciously.
Now as I’ve already shared, my friend Raylene Radiance is no New Age airhead, as her assumed name might have some of you out there thinking, and I normally have a lot of time for what she has to say. So as a man of my word and in the hopes I would be spared eating my best Panama or DKNY cap as well as being swallowed up in the maw of Raylene’s downline, I mumble something about looking into it.
“ Wot’s it called ‘ven?”, I says.
“ USANA”, Ta-Da! she says “they produce the best ever supplements, including a TURRIFIC multi. Doctors all over the world are raving about it. Research shows it’s the No.1. I know you’re going to thank me for this!”, she gushes.
“ Oh yer? Awlright, ‘spose I’ll ‘ave to look into it ‘ven, won’I?”, I manage.
Looking for my “Budget Roller”The thing about this is, over a period of time I’ve already heard about USANA from a number of people I know who are into supplements and MLM and they were saying the same thing. Not only that, I was interested in sourcing another good multi. Now I and my best beloved already use what I am convinced, after 8 years of research and evaluation, is the best multi available anywhere. The Rolls Royce of multis, you might say. But, while it is excellent comparative value in view of its comprehensive nature and formulation, in actual dollar terms it is quite expensive, so it ain’t exactly for dabblers in optimum health. I now wanted to see what else was out there as I knew there were some which, though they may not be as comprehensive, were still very good. The best “budget” multi, as it were. I sourced about half-a-dozen of these matching my criteria. They were all practitioner-only formulations from the US from manufacturers whom I knew were both cutting-edge and totally reliable. They provided the basic vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients for antiaging and disease prevention.
So in the spirit of honest inquiry and to protect my millinery, my stomach, not to mention avoiding a career in MLM, I added USANA to the mix to see how it shaped up.
The Need to Know......I first went to USANA’s website. Not as easy as you might suppose. As with most MLM companies you find yourself batting about between the websites of hundreds of independent distributors all competing to sell the company’s products and/or sign you up. USANA has about 300,000 such distributors worldwide and, as is usual with MLM, it is not easy to get hard data. After slogging away I was able to establish that USANA offered a little over 20 nutritional supplements, including something called USANA Essentials comprising two formulations, an antioxidant and a multi mineral. This was sold together in the US at a combined cost of US$53.30. What I was really looking for was one single formulation, but it seemed this would have to be the basis of any comparison.
I was initially impressed to find that Essentials was formulated by Dr Michael Colgan, who was hired as a consultant by USANA for the purpose and is highly regarded in the US in the fields of nutrition, exercise and antiaging. I also learned there was an “independent” comparative survey of the top 200 multis which said the No.1 was USANA’s Essentials. At this point I actually started to think this might not be a complete waste of time after all and began to get interested. Even if I had to eat my hat and be a soldier in Raylene Radiance’s downline, I might be on the track of my “budget” Roller.
Alas, it was not to be! The more I looked into it the more USANA looked like any other MLM company pulling the usual dubious stunts to promote itself and offering a range of average and over-priced products, when properly compared to the best that’s out there.
First up, I obtained a copy of the “Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” researched and written by self-styled Canadian author, educator and consultant Lyle MacWilliam, who had “trained” as a biochemist and kinesiologist. This was a much slimmer and less impressive document that I had at first imagined and was being sold by MacWilliams’ company at US$15.95 a pop. In it Mr MacWilliam was at pains to point out that there was no corporate connection between his company and USANA. The report evaluated some 400 nutritional products and came up with a final list of 125 comparing them to USANA Essentials and a nutritional “standard”. And, blow me down with a feather, guess what? USANA Essentials was found to be No.1.
So why don’t I buy it? First off, the survey compared two products to one of all the others. This makes a complete nonsense of the methodology and result from the outset, which is patently skewed to favour the USANA product. The only thing valid about this document is that most of the best multis are in the top 20 products.
No Financial Interest....?Next, despite the disclaimer Mr. MacWilliams’ connection with USANA is not at all clear. He admits he is a long term user of their products but does not say, so far as I can see, whether he is a USANA distributor or merely a consumer. Even if he is not a distributor he may well have a vested interest in the company. Any member of his family or one of his employees can be running a USANA distributorship. USANA is a public company and he might be a shareholder. More to the point, USANA has over 300,000 independent distributors. The MacWilliams study says USANA Essentials is the best thing since sliced bread and makes a business out of selling the report or anyone who wants to buy copies at US$15.95 a shot and by the sale of membership giving access to comparative data on competitive products. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that this amounts to a $million business. Just go to one of the major meetings of any MLM company attended by thousands of the faithful. You will soon see there are always a number companies present, all doing a thriving business selling sales and other promotional aids to the throngs of avid MLM’ers there assembled.
Borrowed ClothesSince the name of Dr. Michael Colgan and others are used a lot in promoting the bona fides of both the formulation and the research I next contacted Dr. Colgan and spoke with his wife. What she said was illuminating. Dr. Colgan was indeed retained as a consultant by the company to put together the original formulation. However, as the company grew the company’s sales and management “resented” Dr. Colgan’s continued input on the formulation and dispensed with his services a number of years ago. Part of the termination agreement was that Dr. Colgan’s name would not be used to promote the company. Mrs Colgan was very interested and not at all pleased to hear her husband’s name was being used in this way. In other words having used the reputation of Dr Colgan to establish the product, the company dispensed with his services so they need no longer maintain similar standards. Regrettably, not an unknown practice with MLM or other companies attempting to enter a new market.
Now for the formulation itself.As stated, Essentials comprises two products each containing 84 tablets which at a dosage of 3 tabs per day of each makes a month’s supply at a retail cost of US$53.30. Put the two together and you have a perfectly respectable product. But, I can buy something just as good from a really reputable supplier for about US$30. Now here comes the weasel. Included in the formulation are 15mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid and 12mg of CoQ10. These are indeed important supplements, but they are quite expensive. For them to do you any good you need to take minimum dosages of 250 - 500mg and 60 - 200mg respectively. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book to shove in a tiny and ineffective amount of an expensive ingredient and make a big song and dance about it. Most people aren’t going to spot the scam. Quite apart from that, they are best taken separately and CoQ10 is most bio-available in an oil-based form combined with tocotrienols, a form of Vitamin E. You can’t put oil in a capsule of powder. Any good formulator knows that.
USANA goes on to make much of the fact that their products are pharmaceutical-grade not food-grade and are tested to be bio-available, whatever they mean by that. Well I would hope so! Any product from a reputable manufacturer is also. Yes, thousands of inferior products are on sale everywhere and are neither pharmaceutical-grade nor bio-available, but I’m afraid it is up to you to buy smart and make sure you’re not being stiffed.
There was one more interesting thing I found out along the way about Essentials. What you bought in the US for $53.30 was considerably more expensive if you bought it in Australia or Asia. USANA doesn’t operate in Indonesia but I’m told it is sold here at a cost of Rp 622,000 (US$69.25). Not only that, it is a lesser product and does not contain certain key minerals such as molybdenum, vanadium, boron and smaller amounts of selenium because it is formulated for the Australian market and the Australian government regulates the inclusion of these substances in a multi nutritional supplement. I would be pleasantly surprised if that were something customers in the region were ever made aware of.
An Old TrickGoing through the USANA list I spotted another nasty. They have a product called Gingko-PS costing around US$45.00. These are substances commonly used as cognition enhancers. Taken in sufficient dosages they can do wonders for your short term memory and mental acuity. PS stands for phosphatidylserine and is quite an expensive substance. Ginkgo is an herb. This formulation actually contains 7.5mg of the active ingredient of ginkgo and 125mg of Lecithin. When I tell you that to do any good you need at least 120 mg of ginkgo delivering 42mg of active ingredient and 100mg of PS you may start to get an idea of what a puny formulation this is. And when I tell you that this product doesn’t actually have any PS in it at all, despite the label, but 125mg of Lecithin delivering 0.4% of PS or 0.5mg you may start to get an inkling of how this game is played. I actually queried this with USANA’s management in the US to see if I was right about this and all they could say was “Yes, but trust us, there is PS in it”. And they’re right, all 0.5mg of it! So why don’t they call it Ginkgo-Lecithin then?
So Sorry Raylene!To put it in a nutshell, I don’t think I’m going to have to eat my hat after all and, God be praised, I’m not about to be launched on a new MLM career. It is not that the USANA multi is a bad product, but it is an over-hyped, over-priced, and very average one. No way in the world is it anywhere near the top 50, let alone No.1. I’m even prepared to accept that USANA is one of the better MLM companies, so far as that goes. But in my book, that’s not very far. What this research has confirmed for me yet again is that MLM is an unattractive form of marketing open to all sorts of abuse and misrepresentation, peddling average products at best and appealing to the credulity and financial aspirations of perfectly nice people who should know better.
Researching USANA?
http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles/ type at the search field : USANA!
http://www.frauddiscovery.net/
or go to google: type USANA scam
google news: USANA
http://www.frauddiscovery.net/
or go to google: type USANA scam
google news: USANA
USANA is goin' down !!!
Usana insider says Tim Ramey is a distributor
Can an analyst covering Usana Health Sciences really provide an independent analysis of the company if he is a distributor? Tim Ramey covers Usana for DA Davidson. Isn’t it kind of weird to cover the company and to be a distributor? And at the very least, wouldn’t this be an important disclosure to make before recommending a “buy” on Usana stock?
From the insider on the Yahoo message board:
tim ramey signed up as an associate in may of 2005. he listed the address of 5651 zena road north west (nw) salem oregon 97304.
his phone number is 503 36X-1X85. he will claim that he made no money at usana as associate. that is the point, right? no one does. why worry when you can make commissions repurchasing one hundred thirty thousand shares when the stock went below 30 and d a davidson received commissions repurchasing about five million in shares. ramey knows where to make money and that is not as a usana associate.
the reporter who contacted you from the new york times was my contact. i am the one who handed your ‘associate’ the dvd at convention. the hypocrisy here is mind-boggling. when dr wentz was in the paper for selling shares in february our analysts screamed that it was less than one percent of the float and no big deal. then after the crash into the high twenties, we decided myron should start repurchasing as no one else was. he repurchased less than one percent of the float yet we publicized it like a big occasion. how is one sell less than one percent not a big deal and a buy less than one percent a huge deal? it is the standard operating procedures for us.
Can an analyst covering Usana Health Sciences really provide an independent analysis of the company if he is a distributor? Tim Ramey covers Usana for DA Davidson. Isn’t it kind of weird to cover the company and to be a distributor? And at the very least, wouldn’t this be an important disclosure to make before recommending a “buy” on Usana stock?
From the insider on the Yahoo message board:
tim ramey signed up as an associate in may of 2005. he listed the address of 5651 zena road north west (nw) salem oregon 97304.
his phone number is 503 36X-1X85. he will claim that he made no money at usana as associate. that is the point, right? no one does. why worry when you can make commissions repurchasing one hundred thirty thousand shares when the stock went below 30 and d a davidson received commissions repurchasing about five million in shares. ramey knows where to make money and that is not as a usana associate.
the reporter who contacted you from the new york times was my contact. i am the one who handed your ‘associate’ the dvd at convention. the hypocrisy here is mind-boggling. when dr wentz was in the paper for selling shares in february our analysts screamed that it was less than one percent of the float and no big deal. then after the crash into the high twenties, we decided myron should start repurchasing as no one else was. he repurchased less than one percent of the float yet we publicized it like a big occasion. how is one sell less than one percent not a big deal and a buy less than one percent a huge deal? it is the standard operating procedures for us.
USANA faces fourth lawsuit
From the Salt Lake Tribune:
A shareholder has filed a fourth lawsuit in federal court in Utah against Usana Health Sciences based on allegations the publicly traded company is operating an unsustainable pyramid scheme.
Robert Keith Larson alleges that the board of directors and executives touted the company as highly successful with solid earnings and a successful business model. But a story in The Wall Street Journal revealed “the underlying unsustainability of the company’s business model and the company was in fact perpetrating a ‘pyramid scheme’ in an attempt to sell its products,” according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday. That story and a subsequent one at Forbes.com were based on the work of Barry Minkow, an investigator who spent time in prison for securities and tax fraud but now runs a business known as the Fraud Discovery Institute.
Three other lawsuits against Usana are pending in U.S. District Court for Utah based on Minkow’s investigation….
A shareholder has filed a fourth lawsuit in federal court in Utah against Usana Health Sciences based on allegations the publicly traded company is operating an unsustainable pyramid scheme.
Robert Keith Larson alleges that the board of directors and executives touted the company as highly successful with solid earnings and a successful business model. But a story in The Wall Street Journal revealed “the underlying unsustainability of the company’s business model and the company was in fact perpetrating a ‘pyramid scheme’ in an attempt to sell its products,” according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday. That story and a subsequent one at Forbes.com were based on the work of Barry Minkow, an investigator who spent time in prison for securities and tax fraud but now runs a business known as the Fraud Discovery Institute.
Three other lawsuits against Usana are pending in U.S. District Court for Utah based on Minkow’s investigation….
Clear cache ...
http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles/2007/09/14/ladd-mcnamara-must-have-seen-an-attorney/
Finally, Ladd McNamara - or "Dr" Ladd McNamara has removed the MD from his biography. Trouble with the internet, it ain't that easy to "clear cache" .. heh heh ...
Finally, Ladd McNamara - or "Dr" Ladd McNamara has removed the MD from his biography. Trouble with the internet, it ain't that easy to "clear cache" .. heh heh ...
Pyramid & Phony Bios
http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1705
Pyramid, Phony Bios
By Don Bauder
'We have serious concerns about the management," says stock market research firm Morningstar, Inc., about a publicly held company, Usana Health Sciences. "The company is under investigation by the SEC, and scandals about directors and executives lying about their qualifications abound." And that's only part of the imbroglio, which has led to lawsuits, the resignation of the company's accounting firm, the plummeting of Usana stock, and lots of bitter personal denunciations.
Usana is based in Salt Lake City, but the ground fire commenced in San Diego, and two of the executives found to have untruthful biographies are well-known San Diegans.
On February 20, San Diego's Fraud Discovery Institute issued a 500-page, heavily footnoted study of Usana, charging that it is a pyramid scheme. The company hawks vitamins, energy bars, weight-loss products, and the like through a technique called multilevel marketing, which critics like me call pyramid marketing. These companies make their money recruiting new salespeople who pay to get aboard. Actual consumer-product sales are often trifling, and most of the people who shell out bucks to get on the pyramid lose a bundle. Fraud Discovery Institute made that point clearly with Usana.
Among other things, the report charged that 60 percent of active distributors do not earn commissions and 70 percent of commissions go to 3 percent of the salespeople.
Further, the report noted that more than 45 percent of the stock is held on the Isle of Man tax haven by Myron Wentz, company founder, and is in turn controlled out of another tax/secrecy haven, Liechtenstein. Wentz's Isle of Man holdings are a matter of record, but the company denies the Liechtenstein control. Wentz renounced his citizenship in the 1990s and spends most of his time outside the United States, according to Barry Minkow, San Diego minister/sleuth who heads Fraud Discovery Institute, and that's why Wentz's son David, a University of California, San Diego, graduate, runs the company day to day. Usana says it won't comment on any of its employees' estate planning. "Dr. Wentz complies with all relevant tax laws," says the company. But whose tax laws? Minkow believes Wentz is using tax-avoidance strategies and may not have publicly disclosed a past Internal Revenue Service investigation.
When the institute's report came out, all hell broke loose. The Wall Street Journal began doing Usana stories based on Minkow's study. Later, Forbes.com picked up the story. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched its inquiry. The FBI is said to be investigating, but Usana says it doesn't know of any such probe. It has asked law enforcement officials to investigate Minkow.
The company's longtime auditing firm, Grant Thornton, resigned in July. It could not agree with Usana on procedures for an outside, independent investigation of the charges. Because it had no auditor, Usana was late with official government filings and was not in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission or Nasdaq requirements. On September 5, it hired a new auditor, but Morningstar says, "We are still wary of Usana's management team."
On the day the report came out, Usana's stock was selling for $61.19. The company immediately denounced the study's author as a convicted felon and liar. Minkow hardly refutes the first charge: in 1987 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for perpetrating a fraud in which 90 percent of reported sales were phony. He doesn't deny his guilt. He got religion, got out of prison in 7 years, and is now senior pastor for Community Bible Church in Mira Mesa. He spends 60 percent of his time saving souls and 40 percent saving people from scams as head of Fraud Discovery Institute.
On March 20, with its stock down to $47.85, Usana filed suit against Minkow and his institute, charging that many of the claims about the company are false. Usana's lawyers hired Kroll, Inc., which with its law firm fleeced San Diego of $20.3 million, to dig up dirt on the accusers. Because Minkow made a market bet that Usana's stock would drop, the company claims that his negative report was intended to manipulate the stock downward, in violation of the California Business and Professions Code. In addition, Fraud Discovery Institute "wrongfully and intentionally acted to interfere with and destroy or harm Usana's existing and prospective business relationships," charges the suit.
Minkow says he made a bet on the stock's decline because he had to recover some of the huge expenses of the study. My own view: if someone publishes a positive report on a company and buys the stock, nobody thinks anything of it. What's wrong with publishing a negative report and betting a stock will go down? The criticism of Minkow "is a bunch of malarkey," says Herb Greenberg, a San Diegan who writes columns for the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.com and provides commentary on CNBC. "He has a right to publish his research, as long as people know his position [in the stock]." And Minkow revealed in the report that he is betting for the stock to go down.
Usana blames Minkow's study for four lawsuits filed against the company -- three by investors and one by distributors who lost their shirts. That last suit, which is intended to qualify as a class action, was filed by San Diego attorney Alexander Schack on behalf of San Diegans Jeannette Johnson and Christopher Crane. Among many things, the suit charges that "the company's multi-level marketing model operate[s] as a pyramid scheme," more than 74 percent of company associates fail within a year of joining up, and more than 87 percent lose money. Usana denies those claims.
Among the defendants are Denis Waitley of Rancho Santa Fe and Ladd McNamara of Oceanside. Both Waitley and McNamara use the title "Dr." in front of their names. Both are spellbinding in front of audiences. And both recently left the company because their biographies are untruthful.
"A life lived with integrity -- even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune -- is a shining star," preaches Waitley, motivational speaker and author of 15 books with maudlin messages (Being the Best, Psychology of Success, etc.). Waitley's website lists his alleged self-spun aphorisms, although some have a familiar ring, e.g., "I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street I met a man who had no feet" and "We've got to have a dream if we are going to make a dream come true." The first is almost identical to an ancient quote credited to Anonymous, and the second is close to a song in the 1940s musical South Pacific.
On March 30, Usana announced that Waitley would no longer be on its board. The company had been reporting for years that he had a master's degree. He didn't. Said the company, "Dr. Waitley recently informed Usana that an error appeared in his biography listed in the Company's proxy statement." Later, the Wall Street Journal reported that Usana could not verify that Waitley holds a Ph.D. from the former La Jolla University, as he claims. Usana and Waitley both insist that Waitley has that Ph.D. from the unaccredited La Jolla University, which lasted from 1978 to 1994. Waitley sent me an affidavit from Dr. Denis Kelleher Muhilly, who was president of the university from 1985 to 1991. Muhilly laments that the records of Waitley's Ph.D. have been lost, but the ex-president swears that upon taking the reins, he heard that Waitley had received his doctorate in 1980, although the two did not know each other. Problem: how did Waitley get a Ph.D. in 1980 if he had no master's and the school had only started in 1978? Well, explains Waitley, he had enrolled in a combined master's/doctoral program and he was given "equivalency credit for my final years in the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Washington, D.C., and subsequent corporate management positions." Waitley says the founder of La Jolla University, now deceased, was his Ph.D. advisor, but he can't remember who was on his doctoral committee. He doesn't have a copy of his dissertation but has used its findings in his books.
Dr. David Feldman, a longtime San Diego university professor who once taught Muhilly in a class, is extremely skeptical: "No one gives equivalency credit toward a doctor's degree," says Feldman. "And I would be very suspicious of someone who gets a Ph.D. in two years without a master's degree."
McNamara resigned from Usana's medical advisory board when it was discovered that his license had been revoked by Ohio's medical board this year. He had not informed Ohio that his license had earlier been yanked by Georgia. He would not respond to my queries. He, too, has a website plugging his books and audio recordings. His motto: "Helping people secure their health and financial future with time to enjoy it!"
In addition, the company's chief financial officer and research director have admitted their biographies are erroneous.
It all brings back my first encounter with Usana 11 years ago. Rancho Santa Fe's Robert G. Allen was author of two runaway best sellers on getting rich quick: Nothing Down and Creating Wealth. But he had gone into Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. Nonetheless, he was still speaking and writing on how to get rich. Among other things, he was selling Usana products. His wife still does.
Pyramid, Phony Bios
By Don Bauder
'We have serious concerns about the management," says stock market research firm Morningstar, Inc., about a publicly held company, Usana Health Sciences. "The company is under investigation by the SEC, and scandals about directors and executives lying about their qualifications abound." And that's only part of the imbroglio, which has led to lawsuits, the resignation of the company's accounting firm, the plummeting of Usana stock, and lots of bitter personal denunciations.
Usana is based in Salt Lake City, but the ground fire commenced in San Diego, and two of the executives found to have untruthful biographies are well-known San Diegans.
On February 20, San Diego's Fraud Discovery Institute issued a 500-page, heavily footnoted study of Usana, charging that it is a pyramid scheme. The company hawks vitamins, energy bars, weight-loss products, and the like through a technique called multilevel marketing, which critics like me call pyramid marketing. These companies make their money recruiting new salespeople who pay to get aboard. Actual consumer-product sales are often trifling, and most of the people who shell out bucks to get on the pyramid lose a bundle. Fraud Discovery Institute made that point clearly with Usana.
Among other things, the report charged that 60 percent of active distributors do not earn commissions and 70 percent of commissions go to 3 percent of the salespeople.
Further, the report noted that more than 45 percent of the stock is held on the Isle of Man tax haven by Myron Wentz, company founder, and is in turn controlled out of another tax/secrecy haven, Liechtenstein. Wentz's Isle of Man holdings are a matter of record, but the company denies the Liechtenstein control. Wentz renounced his citizenship in the 1990s and spends most of his time outside the United States, according to Barry Minkow, San Diego minister/sleuth who heads Fraud Discovery Institute, and that's why Wentz's son David, a University of California, San Diego, graduate, runs the company day to day. Usana says it won't comment on any of its employees' estate planning. "Dr. Wentz complies with all relevant tax laws," says the company. But whose tax laws? Minkow believes Wentz is using tax-avoidance strategies and may not have publicly disclosed a past Internal Revenue Service investigation.
When the institute's report came out, all hell broke loose. The Wall Street Journal began doing Usana stories based on Minkow's study. Later, Forbes.com picked up the story. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched its inquiry. The FBI is said to be investigating, but Usana says it doesn't know of any such probe. It has asked law enforcement officials to investigate Minkow.
The company's longtime auditing firm, Grant Thornton, resigned in July. It could not agree with Usana on procedures for an outside, independent investigation of the charges. Because it had no auditor, Usana was late with official government filings and was not in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission or Nasdaq requirements. On September 5, it hired a new auditor, but Morningstar says, "We are still wary of Usana's management team."
On the day the report came out, Usana's stock was selling for $61.19. The company immediately denounced the study's author as a convicted felon and liar. Minkow hardly refutes the first charge: in 1987 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for perpetrating a fraud in which 90 percent of reported sales were phony. He doesn't deny his guilt. He got religion, got out of prison in 7 years, and is now senior pastor for Community Bible Church in Mira Mesa. He spends 60 percent of his time saving souls and 40 percent saving people from scams as head of Fraud Discovery Institute.
On March 20, with its stock down to $47.85, Usana filed suit against Minkow and his institute, charging that many of the claims about the company are false. Usana's lawyers hired Kroll, Inc., which with its law firm fleeced San Diego of $20.3 million, to dig up dirt on the accusers. Because Minkow made a market bet that Usana's stock would drop, the company claims that his negative report was intended to manipulate the stock downward, in violation of the California Business and Professions Code. In addition, Fraud Discovery Institute "wrongfully and intentionally acted to interfere with and destroy or harm Usana's existing and prospective business relationships," charges the suit.
Minkow says he made a bet on the stock's decline because he had to recover some of the huge expenses of the study. My own view: if someone publishes a positive report on a company and buys the stock, nobody thinks anything of it. What's wrong with publishing a negative report and betting a stock will go down? The criticism of Minkow "is a bunch of malarkey," says Herb Greenberg, a San Diegan who writes columns for the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.com and provides commentary on CNBC. "He has a right to publish his research, as long as people know his position [in the stock]." And Minkow revealed in the report that he is betting for the stock to go down.
Usana blames Minkow's study for four lawsuits filed against the company -- three by investors and one by distributors who lost their shirts. That last suit, which is intended to qualify as a class action, was filed by San Diego attorney Alexander Schack on behalf of San Diegans Jeannette Johnson and Christopher Crane. Among many things, the suit charges that "the company's multi-level marketing model operate[s] as a pyramid scheme," more than 74 percent of company associates fail within a year of joining up, and more than 87 percent lose money. Usana denies those claims.
Among the defendants are Denis Waitley of Rancho Santa Fe and Ladd McNamara of Oceanside. Both Waitley and McNamara use the title "Dr." in front of their names. Both are spellbinding in front of audiences. And both recently left the company because their biographies are untruthful.
"A life lived with integrity -- even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune -- is a shining star," preaches Waitley, motivational speaker and author of 15 books with maudlin messages (Being the Best, Psychology of Success, etc.). Waitley's website lists his alleged self-spun aphorisms, although some have a familiar ring, e.g., "I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street I met a man who had no feet" and "We've got to have a dream if we are going to make a dream come true." The first is almost identical to an ancient quote credited to Anonymous, and the second is close to a song in the 1940s musical South Pacific.
On March 30, Usana announced that Waitley would no longer be on its board. The company had been reporting for years that he had a master's degree. He didn't. Said the company, "Dr. Waitley recently informed Usana that an error appeared in his biography listed in the Company's proxy statement." Later, the Wall Street Journal reported that Usana could not verify that Waitley holds a Ph.D. from the former La Jolla University, as he claims. Usana and Waitley both insist that Waitley has that Ph.D. from the unaccredited La Jolla University, which lasted from 1978 to 1994. Waitley sent me an affidavit from Dr. Denis Kelleher Muhilly, who was president of the university from 1985 to 1991. Muhilly laments that the records of Waitley's Ph.D. have been lost, but the ex-president swears that upon taking the reins, he heard that Waitley had received his doctorate in 1980, although the two did not know each other. Problem: how did Waitley get a Ph.D. in 1980 if he had no master's and the school had only started in 1978? Well, explains Waitley, he had enrolled in a combined master's/doctoral program and he was given "equivalency credit for my final years in the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Washington, D.C., and subsequent corporate management positions." Waitley says the founder of La Jolla University, now deceased, was his Ph.D. advisor, but he can't remember who was on his doctoral committee. He doesn't have a copy of his dissertation but has used its findings in his books.
Dr. David Feldman, a longtime San Diego university professor who once taught Muhilly in a class, is extremely skeptical: "No one gives equivalency credit toward a doctor's degree," says Feldman. "And I would be very suspicious of someone who gets a Ph.D. in two years without a master's degree."
McNamara resigned from Usana's medical advisory board when it was discovered that his license had been revoked by Ohio's medical board this year. He had not informed Ohio that his license had earlier been yanked by Georgia. He would not respond to my queries. He, too, has a website plugging his books and audio recordings. His motto: "Helping people secure their health and financial future with time to enjoy it!"
In addition, the company's chief financial officer and research director have admitted their biographies are erroneous.
It all brings back my first encounter with Usana 11 years ago. Rancho Santa Fe's Robert G. Allen was author of two runaway best sellers on getting rich quick: Nothing Down and Creating Wealth. But he had gone into Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. Nonetheless, he was still speaking and writing on how to get rich. Among other things, he was selling Usana products. His wife still does.
An excellent analysis on the demise of USANA
An article today on SanDiegoReader.com does an excellent job of highlighting what’s been happening with the Usana case. As if I’d ever let you forget, I will remind you that Usana Health Sciences is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for violation of securities laws.
Their investigation was initiated based upon a lengthy report authored by Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute. Contributors to the investigation included me, Robert FitzPatrick, Jon Taylor, and Doug Brooks, to name a few.
Here’s a summary of the case, with the help of the article:
Usana uses multi-level marketing to sell vitamins, but the real deal is they’re selling distributorships via pyramid marketing.
Companies like Usana make money by recruiting new salespeople who pay a fee to become a distributor and then often buy products in order to “qualify” for commissions on people they bring into the pyramid.
Little actual retailing of products occurs.
60 percent of active Usana distributors do not earn commissions and 70 percent of commissions go to 3 percent of the salespeople.
More than 45 percent of Usana’s stock is held on the Isle of Man tax haven by Myron Wentz, company founder, and is in turn controlled out of another tax/secrecy haven, Liechtenstein.
The issuance of the report sparked stories in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com.
The SEC started an “informal’ (for now) inquiry into Usana.
Reporters confirmed an FBI investigation into Usana, but the company denies knowledge of it.
Usana asked law enforcement to investigate Minkow, but they declined.
Usana officials including the CFO, a board member, and members of the “Medical Advisory Board” falsified their credentials in SEC filings and other materials made public.
Usana’s long-time auditors, Grant Thornton, resigned after a disagreement about the scope of review procedures on quarterly financial statements.
Usana’s 2nd quarter SEC filings are delinquent (i.e. They filed financial statement that were unreviewed.)
Morningstar reported: “We are still wary of Usana’s management team.”
Usana accuses Barry Minkow of lying to profit from a drop in Usana’s stock price, but the truth is that he issued a fair report with evidence to back up the allegations, and any profit Barry might make on the stock won’t even come close to covering the cost of the investigation. And his stock investment was disclosed from the start. Barry did not violate any laws with this stock bet.
Three shareholder suits are pending against Usana.
One distributor class action suit is pending against Usana.
Their investigation was initiated based upon a lengthy report authored by Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute. Contributors to the investigation included me, Robert FitzPatrick, Jon Taylor, and Doug Brooks, to name a few.
Here’s a summary of the case, with the help of the article:
Usana uses multi-level marketing to sell vitamins, but the real deal is they’re selling distributorships via pyramid marketing.
Companies like Usana make money by recruiting new salespeople who pay a fee to become a distributor and then often buy products in order to “qualify” for commissions on people they bring into the pyramid.
Little actual retailing of products occurs.
60 percent of active Usana distributors do not earn commissions and 70 percent of commissions go to 3 percent of the salespeople.
More than 45 percent of Usana’s stock is held on the Isle of Man tax haven by Myron Wentz, company founder, and is in turn controlled out of another tax/secrecy haven, Liechtenstein.
The issuance of the report sparked stories in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com.
The SEC started an “informal’ (for now) inquiry into Usana.
Reporters confirmed an FBI investigation into Usana, but the company denies knowledge of it.
Usana asked law enforcement to investigate Minkow, but they declined.
Usana officials including the CFO, a board member, and members of the “Medical Advisory Board” falsified their credentials in SEC filings and other materials made public.
Usana’s long-time auditors, Grant Thornton, resigned after a disagreement about the scope of review procedures on quarterly financial statements.
Usana’s 2nd quarter SEC filings are delinquent (i.e. They filed financial statement that were unreviewed.)
Morningstar reported: “We are still wary of Usana’s management team.”
Usana accuses Barry Minkow of lying to profit from a drop in Usana’s stock price, but the truth is that he issued a fair report with evidence to back up the allegations, and any profit Barry might make on the stock won’t even come close to covering the cost of the investigation. And his stock investment was disclosed from the start. Barry did not violate any laws with this stock bet.
Three shareholder suits are pending against Usana.
One distributor class action suit is pending against Usana.
"Dr" Ladd McNamara exposed!
Fraud Discovery Institute Breaking News
Ladd McNamara has no license at all!
Usana knew it yet he is still listed on their site as a Doctor, a member of their Medical
Advisory Board, and on multiple associate web sites.
San Diego: May 30th. For over a month, according to the Ohio State Medical Board
(http://med.ohio.gov/formala/35081069.pdf), Ladd McNamara has not possessed a medical
license at all—not in California, not in Georgia where he surrendered it in 2004, and now not
even in the state of Ohio.
Moreover, the statute cited as the reason his license was being revoked in Ohio over a month ago
was 4731.22: “fraud, deception and misrepresentation.”
Usana Health Sciences, Inc, despite this public record, still has Mister McNamara listed on their
web site on the medical advisory board (http://www.usana.com/dotCom/company/mab.jsp) as
well as multiple associate web sites, imputing credibility to the company’s “scientific based
products.”
Ladd McNamara has no license at all!
Usana knew it yet he is still listed on their site as a Doctor, a member of their Medical
Advisory Board, and on multiple associate web sites.
San Diego: May 30th. For over a month, according to the Ohio State Medical Board
(http://med.ohio.gov/formala/35081069.pdf), Ladd McNamara has not possessed a medical
license at all—not in California, not in Georgia where he surrendered it in 2004, and now not
even in the state of Ohio.
Moreover, the statute cited as the reason his license was being revoked in Ohio over a month ago
was 4731.22: “fraud, deception and misrepresentation.”
Usana Health Sciences, Inc, despite this public record, still has Mister McNamara listed on their
web site on the medical advisory board (http://www.usana.com/dotCom/company/mab.jsp) as
well as multiple associate web sites, imputing credibility to the company’s “scientific based
products.”
When will USANA ever learn?
September 4th, 2007
Ms. Tanya Beard, Esq
Securities and Exchange Commission
Ms. Karen Martinez - Chief Trial Council
Securities and Exchange Commission
15 W. South Temple Street, Suite 1800
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Special Agent Matt Galioto
Federal Bureau of Investigations
135 Pinelawn Road, Suite 350
South Melville, NY 11747
Dear Ms. Beard, Ms. Martinez and Special Agent Galioto;
Per my earlier email, please find the below evidence which appears to demonstrate that Usana
Health Sciences, Inc. has attempted to reinvent the Medical Advisory Board by recently creating
a “Scientific Advisory Council” (http://www.usana.com/dotCom/company/ag/mab). This council
contains many of the same names (for example, Dr. Christine Wood and Dr. Ray Strand) and
no longer contains Dr. Ladd McNamara, as he appears to be replaced with Peter W. Rugg and
Dr. Ricardo Calderon.
Dr. McNamara was replaced because he lost his medical license to practice in both Georgia
and Ohio, yet was still technically practicing medicine by placing “MD” next to his name while
living in California. According to California law, this constitutes the practice of medicine, and
requires a state license. As Helen Malmgren recently reported in the National Business Review:
But according to Candis Cohen of the State Medical Board of California, where Mr
McNamara currently lives, “He is so wrong…As long as he’s living here he can’t call
himself ‘MD’ or ‘doctor’ or ‘physician’ unless he has a California medical license.”
Ms Cohen referred to section 2054 of California’s business and professions code, which Mr.
McNamara appears to have violated when he advertised himself as a “board-certified medical
doctor” in flyers for a number of Usana speaking engagements in California in July.”1
One would think that Usana Health Sciences, Inc would not, in the abundance of caution, make
this mistake again and harm their stockholders by posting any new resume in this reinvention of
their medical advisory board that would even be close to the line when it came to credentials.
Moreover, this “scientific” council is clearly established for the benefit of the associates so they
1 Please see http://www.nbr.co.nz/search/search_article.asp?id=18770&cid=0&cname=Results.
info@frauddiscovery.net
Phone & Fax:
1-888-300-8307
can infer “independent” corroboration to the alleged scientific viability of the Usana products.
With these two factors considered, the below information becomes even more material.
Dr. Ricardo Calderon, the man who replaced Dr. Ladd McNamara, is not an MD in the United
States (his only medical degree appears to be from Guatemala) and he is not licensed in any
state in this country to practice medicine. He also has no DEA number to prescribe medicine.
But his resume on the Usana Health Sciences, Inc website reads:
Ricardo Calderón, M.D., MPH
Dr. Ricardo Calderón is a physician executive with extensive experience designing,
implementing, managing, and evaluating medical, public health, pharmaceutical, and
community health and development programs at the local, national and international
level. He currently serves as Area Director and Health Officer for the Los Angeles
County Public Health Department and Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine,
Director of International Training Programs, and Director of the MPH Global Health
Leadership Track at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.
In his biographical information for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department he lists the
following information:2
M. Ricardo Calderón, M.P.H. Area Health Officer Metropolitan Service Planning Area
(SPA 4) San Gabriel Valley Service Planning Area (SPA 3) Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services.”
Notice no “MD” next to his name in that biography. Compare that to the Associate Adjunct
Professor biographical information at the Alhambra office of the Keck School of Medicine:3
Ricardo Calderon, MD, MPH Adjunct Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine Applied
public health practice through strategic leadership, planning and management of
programs mrcalderon@aol.com.
In the abundance of caution, we hired Check Mate Investigative Services and Managing
Director Terry Gilbeau. He confirmed that Dr. Ricardo Calderon is actually Mario Ricardo
Calderon4 who appears to have graduated from Universidad De San Carlos De Guatemala and
who also appears to have received a Masters Degree in Public Health from UCLA in 1984. But
even if Dr. Calderon does possess a medical degree in Guatemala, he is not a licensed
physician in the state of California. Further, Mr. Gilbeau could not locate a DEA number or any
state in the US where Dr. Calderon is a licensed physician. This prevents him from putting MD
next to his name in the state of California - just like it precluded Dr. McNamara from doing so.
2 Please see link at http://www.lapublichealth.org/spa4/spadirector/index.htm.
3 Please see link at
http://www.usc.edu/schools/medicine/departments/preventive_medicine/divisions/behavior/education/mph/staff_list
ing.html.
4 Social Security number ending in 3796 and abridged for privacy reasons.
info@frauddiscovery.net
Phone & Fax:
1-888-300-8307
The issue is very simple under California law. One cannot, under any circumstances, put “MD”
next to his (or her) name without a California medical license, as that constitutes practicing
medicine. How the Keck School of Medicine at USC appears to have a director, Dr. Calderon,
in a prestigious position at the school while he is also apparently violating state law5 is not as
troublesome as the fact that Usana Health Sciences, Inc., in a desperate attempt to impute
“scientific” credibility to their “not better than over the counter” vitamins which are hopelessly
overpriced, recklessly fills the spot of one resume blunder with another.
And if that was not bad enough, it appears that Dr. Calderon may have a motive for this attempt
to impute credibility to Usana - he is a silver director, associate number 2542689—a fact not
disclosed in this reinvention of the medical advisory board.
I am as tired of writing and reporting these issues as you are of receiving them. But based on
the above and multiple other instances, this company and their loyal handful of cartel type
analysts will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to prop up this multi-level marketing company
which, according to its balance sheet and contrary to its latest income statement, is on life
support.
Perhaps if the senior management and legal counsel at Usana would spend more time
researching people they publicly place on their website to promote (and more importantly,
impute credibility to) their vitamins (remember what Mr. Almada said in the Forbes article) as
they do searching for my naked shorting partners that do not exist, then they would perhaps not
once again post, with impunity, inaccurate, relevant information. Either way, the Fraud
Discovery Institute, Inc will now increase both the scope and intensity of our investigation into
Usana Health Sciences, Inc.
Respectfully Submitted,
Barry Minkow
Co-Founder
Fraud Discovery Institute
www.frauddiscovery.net
5 No doubt a defense for Usana will be “If USC was fooled, how could we be expected to know this information”
Ms. Tanya Beard, Esq
Securities and Exchange Commission
Ms. Karen Martinez - Chief Trial Council
Securities and Exchange Commission
15 W. South Temple Street, Suite 1800
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Special Agent Matt Galioto
Federal Bureau of Investigations
135 Pinelawn Road, Suite 350
South Melville, NY 11747
Dear Ms. Beard, Ms. Martinez and Special Agent Galioto;
Per my earlier email, please find the below evidence which appears to demonstrate that Usana
Health Sciences, Inc. has attempted to reinvent the Medical Advisory Board by recently creating
a “Scientific Advisory Council” (http://www.usana.com/dotCom/company/ag/mab). This council
contains many of the same names (for example, Dr. Christine Wood and Dr. Ray Strand) and
no longer contains Dr. Ladd McNamara, as he appears to be replaced with Peter W. Rugg and
Dr. Ricardo Calderon.
Dr. McNamara was replaced because he lost his medical license to practice in both Georgia
and Ohio, yet was still technically practicing medicine by placing “MD” next to his name while
living in California. According to California law, this constitutes the practice of medicine, and
requires a state license. As Helen Malmgren recently reported in the National Business Review:
But according to Candis Cohen of the State Medical Board of California, where Mr
McNamara currently lives, “He is so wrong…As long as he’s living here he can’t call
himself ‘MD’ or ‘doctor’ or ‘physician’ unless he has a California medical license.”
Ms Cohen referred to section 2054 of California’s business and professions code, which Mr.
McNamara appears to have violated when he advertised himself as a “board-certified medical
doctor” in flyers for a number of Usana speaking engagements in California in July.”1
One would think that Usana Health Sciences, Inc would not, in the abundance of caution, make
this mistake again and harm their stockholders by posting any new resume in this reinvention of
their medical advisory board that would even be close to the line when it came to credentials.
Moreover, this “scientific” council is clearly established for the benefit of the associates so they
1 Please see http://www.nbr.co.nz/search/search_article.asp?id=18770&cid=0&cname=Results.
info@frauddiscovery.net
Phone & Fax:
1-888-300-8307
can infer “independent” corroboration to the alleged scientific viability of the Usana products.
With these two factors considered, the below information becomes even more material.
Dr. Ricardo Calderon, the man who replaced Dr. Ladd McNamara, is not an MD in the United
States (his only medical degree appears to be from Guatemala) and he is not licensed in any
state in this country to practice medicine. He also has no DEA number to prescribe medicine.
But his resume on the Usana Health Sciences, Inc website reads:
Ricardo Calderón, M.D., MPH
Dr. Ricardo Calderón is a physician executive with extensive experience designing,
implementing, managing, and evaluating medical, public health, pharmaceutical, and
community health and development programs at the local, national and international
level. He currently serves as Area Director and Health Officer for the Los Angeles
County Public Health Department and Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine,
Director of International Training Programs, and Director of the MPH Global Health
Leadership Track at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.
In his biographical information for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department he lists the
following information:2
M. Ricardo Calderón, M.P.H. Area Health Officer Metropolitan Service Planning Area
(SPA 4) San Gabriel Valley Service Planning Area (SPA 3) Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services.”
Notice no “MD” next to his name in that biography. Compare that to the Associate Adjunct
Professor biographical information at the Alhambra office of the Keck School of Medicine:3
Ricardo Calderon, MD, MPH Adjunct Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine Applied
public health practice through strategic leadership, planning and management of
programs mrcalderon@aol.com.
In the abundance of caution, we hired Check Mate Investigative Services and Managing
Director Terry Gilbeau. He confirmed that Dr. Ricardo Calderon is actually Mario Ricardo
Calderon4 who appears to have graduated from Universidad De San Carlos De Guatemala and
who also appears to have received a Masters Degree in Public Health from UCLA in 1984. But
even if Dr. Calderon does possess a medical degree in Guatemala, he is not a licensed
physician in the state of California. Further, Mr. Gilbeau could not locate a DEA number or any
state in the US where Dr. Calderon is a licensed physician. This prevents him from putting MD
next to his name in the state of California - just like it precluded Dr. McNamara from doing so.
2 Please see link at http://www.lapublichealth.org/spa4/spadirector/index.htm.
3 Please see link at
http://www.usc.edu/schools/medicine/departments/preventive_medicine/divisions/behavior/education/mph/staff_list
ing.html.
4 Social Security number ending in 3796 and abridged for privacy reasons.
info@frauddiscovery.net
Phone & Fax:
1-888-300-8307
The issue is very simple under California law. One cannot, under any circumstances, put “MD”
next to his (or her) name without a California medical license, as that constitutes practicing
medicine. How the Keck School of Medicine at USC appears to have a director, Dr. Calderon,
in a prestigious position at the school while he is also apparently violating state law5 is not as
troublesome as the fact that Usana Health Sciences, Inc., in a desperate attempt to impute
“scientific” credibility to their “not better than over the counter” vitamins which are hopelessly
overpriced, recklessly fills the spot of one resume blunder with another.
And if that was not bad enough, it appears that Dr. Calderon may have a motive for this attempt
to impute credibility to Usana - he is a silver director, associate number 2542689—a fact not
disclosed in this reinvention of the medical advisory board.
I am as tired of writing and reporting these issues as you are of receiving them. But based on
the above and multiple other instances, this company and their loyal handful of cartel type
analysts will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to prop up this multi-level marketing company
which, according to its balance sheet and contrary to its latest income statement, is on life
support.
Perhaps if the senior management and legal counsel at Usana would spend more time
researching people they publicly place on their website to promote (and more importantly,
impute credibility to) their vitamins (remember what Mr. Almada said in the Forbes article) as
they do searching for my naked shorting partners that do not exist, then they would perhaps not
once again post, with impunity, inaccurate, relevant information. Either way, the Fraud
Discovery Institute, Inc will now increase both the scope and intensity of our investigation into
Usana Health Sciences, Inc.
Respectfully Submitted,
Barry Minkow
Co-Founder
Fraud Discovery Institute
www.frauddiscovery.net
5 No doubt a defense for Usana will be “If USC was fooled, how could we be expected to know this information”
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