The government's massive trial against Equinox International, Bill Gouldd, and his motivational and training companies Advanced Marketing Seminars Inc. and BG Enterprises. The Federal Trade Commission is joined in this action by eight states, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee and the commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In addition, a group of former Equinox representatives has been allowed to join the suit as a class action.

The trial began on April 4, 2000, and is expected to run for at least three weeks and possibly until the end of the month. The judge's decision will come after another 30 days. Testimony is expected from many former distributors, including Rob Styler, author of Spellbound: My Journey Through a Tangled Web of Success. In the book, Styler documents his experiences as a high-level distributor who was close to company founder Gouldd.

Equinox insists that it is an honest, legal, and ethical company, modeled after "industry leader Amway." According to massive amounts of distributor testimony, however, Equinox is riddled with deceptions, dishonesty, and abuse (including sexual abuse), and is about as good at enforcing the anti-pyramid rules as Amway is.

Amway is the subject of a current petition to the FTC for review of its rules enforcement.

Equinox Shut Down, Gouldd Barred

Judge Orders Temporary Injunction Against Equinox

Equinox Class Action Suit
FTC Website

You are Survivor #

to read about the FTC et al v. Equinox Trial

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