Robert FitzPatrick

management and distributor marketing strategies. It is precisely these three elements of business that are distorted and manipulated in fraudulent multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes. My experience in industry with distribution channels prepared me to distinguish disguised scams, marketing fraud and misuse of independent distributors from legitimate direct selling programs. On this foundation was later added 15 years of direct research, field experience and rigor of working on than more than 20 court cases focused on how pyramids and Ponzis disguise themselves as legitimate direct selling businesses. My expertise in this specialized field of pyramids and multi-level marketing includes correspondence and consultations with thousands of pyramid scheme participants and collaborations with journalists, attorneys and regulators. It involves tedious deciphering of pyramid pay plans, historical knowledge of pyramid prosecutions in the USA and internationally and fluency in the history of pyramids and Ponzis. It requires familiarity with state and federal anti-pyramid scheme statutes, competency in reading SEC filings and a solid foundation in basic math and statistics (in the end, all pyramid schemes employ math trickery). Technical knowledge and field experience are tempered with a mature sensibility for human folly.

government which all large-scale pyramid schemes engage in and cause. Finally, it offers the relief of humor, since pyramid schemes are a human folly, touching all of us. No one is exempt. Therefore, Humor, the universal anti-dote to the human condition, is especially relevant.

enrolled and solicited. A centerpiece of the book is a dramatic account of the illegal pyramid scheme, called the "Airplane Game", as it unfolded in South Florid and other parts of the United States in the late 1980s. This account is provided as part of the exploration of the underlying motives, values and needs that draw people into pyramid schemes and into multi-level marketing. False Profits: --traces the assertions and promises of the MLM industry to fundamental American values and beliefs and describes how they are misused in solicitation campaigns. -- explains the similarities and distinctions of the multi-level marketing industry and illegal pyramid schemes. -- examines the MLM distribution system in light of the principles of legitimate distribution channels, the requirements of supply and demand, market saturation, good faith manufacturer/distribution relations, and the role of honest and full disclosure of market conditions and expectations. -- analyzes the assertions in MLM recruitment and its sales of motivation materials regarding what constitutes success in life, the meaning of prosperity, the power of creative visualization and belief, the value of alternative work or occupations, and the role of MLM in the overall economy. -- illustrates how the MLM system of enrollment changes personal, family and professional relationships. -- provides data on the size of the MLM industry, growth rates, number of people involved, success rates of distributors and incomes of distributors -- critiques the most popular promotional literature of the MLM industry against real life experience of millions of participants. The final section of False Profits offers alternative approaches to work, vocation, and personal integrity in work and business. This side of the subject is considered because of MLM's pervasive messages and predictions about its role in the distribution field and its self-promotions as the preferred or only sustainable way to earn a living in the current and future economy.