After years of hearing rumors, we finally have received copies of court documents which confirm the sexual abuse found in the Equinox and Trek Alliance organizations. Read about it here.

Remember Jim and Patti Hearns of Louisville? They had robbed the local school board, not to mention a number of parents, in a bogus encyclopedia sales scam. (See article below) They are serving their jail time now, but are requesting that they be allowed to do their required community service now, in the resort community of Nags Head, NC. So, let me get this straight. These Amway distributors stole $322,485 intended for the public school system which employed both of them, and now they want to leave jail to "serve time" in a resort community. Makes sense to me! You can read more in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

It appears that Mark Barton, the Atlanta, GA stock trader who killed his family, and brokerage employees before turning the gun on himself, had been an Amway distributor. This is, sadly, not the only recent case in which a distributor or former distributor has committed murder. There was also a recent case in Canada. These are cases for the psychiatrists, but one can't help but wonder whether the cultism so rampant in so many AMOs has further unbalanced some precariously put together psyches.

Amway created Quixtar in an attempt to divorce itself from its negative image. Quixtar hasn't even launched yet -- it starts on 9/1/99 -- and the tool barons have taken steps already to tarnish their own image. Convicted felon Kevin Trudeau has been hired in an exclusive arrangement by the Don Storms (Don is a former pastor) organization to provide "sales training" for Quixtar distributors. Way to go, Don!

And here's one thats truly unique! According to an article in the Osceola Sentinel on April 16, 1999, the Orrises, husband-and-wife owners of a bondage and torture club in Kissimmee, FL, have been arrested for secretly taping their patrons' activities. According to the article:

After a two-month investigation by undercover Kissimmee officers, the couple were originally charged with not having an occupational license for the club, which was registered as a janitorial business.

"On Jan. 22, Orris told city officials he was going to convert the 2,500-square-foot facility . . . into a graphic-arts business and have occasional Amway meetings there."

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted an Amway distributor for 15 years worth of tax evasion. The Bel Aire, MD man owes an estimated $260,000 in back taxes. The man also generated income through a tax preparation business, and a federal pension. Read the whole story.

On Monday, January 11, 1999, a Japanese official warned that the Aum Shinrikyo cult is rebuilding and poses a definite threat. The group was responsible for the March, 1995 nerve gas attack in a Tokyo subway which killed 12 people and injured thousands, and for another nerve gas attack in Matsumoto in June, 1994 which killed seven people. In an interesting side note to this story, police are actively searching for an Aum follower who is also an Amway distributor. Tomoyo Kobayashi, 35, "a door-to-door saleswoman for the US firm Amway," is being sought on suspicion that she embezzled a total of about 1.86 million yen (17,000 dollars) in the last two years, police said. From From Agence Frances-Presse.

According to an AP article in the Boston Globe on January 6, 1999, Eric Snead, Amway distributor, "has been arrested after allegedly pocketing more than $207,000 the casino paid for the delivery of mail-order catalogs and merchandise, police said." The Foxwoods Resort Casino had ordered Amagift gift albums from Snead, which they were planning to give their 11,000 employees as holiday gifts.

Last Tuesday, Amway Corp. representatives in Ada, MI announced that Snead's distributorship has been terminated. It is not clear from the Globe article whether Snead ever actually ordered the merchandise from Amway. It's nice to know that Amway will occasionally terminate a distributorship when the violation is flagrant enough -- or was Snead's distributorship terminated because Amway didn't get paid? Read text of article.

On July 26, 1998, Mark Monroe Dean, 37, of Prairieville, Louisiana, falsified a prescription for Valium, and was subsequently arrested. Dean is an Amway distributor, and the son of LSU Athletic Director Joe Dean.

In a three-part article by Greg Garland in the Baton Rouge, LA Advocate, Dean is described as a "successful Amway distributor." Dean, an Emerald Direct Distributor, was quoted in that article:

When anybody asks me what our success rate is, I say it’s 100 percent for people that work the eight basic steps that the Britt system teaches," Dean said.

Was Dean following the Britt system when he forged a prescription?

In Kentucky, another situation has been unfolding in recent months. Patti Hearn was an Amway distributor who was also a deputy superintendent in the school department. Her husband, Jim, had been the Chairman of the School Board. In a complicated swindle, Hearn used her influence to authorize the Jefferson County Schools to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Encyclopedia Americanas from her Amway distributorship. Not only did the school system pay way too much, but most of the books were never delivered.

Jim Hearn, trading on his credentials as former School Board Chair, represented his encyclopedias as being endorsed by school authorities, and sold them to parents.

Jim Hearn had in the past used school department employees to work on Patti's personal residence, and according to a report in the Louisville Courier-Journal, had sold fraudulent travel plans to school board employees.

Patti Hearn has "retired" from her $102,000/year job with the school district; Jim and Patti are under investigation by the Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney.

In New York, The leader of the Latin Kings gang may continue to sell Amway products, a judge ruled recently, despite prosecutors' claims that the business is a cover for gang activity.

Last May, Antonio Fernandez was arrested on charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin. Prosecutors charged that Amway was just a cover for further drug-related activities.

In Taiwan last August, Two Amway direct-marketing distributors were arrested for taking in more than NT$700 million from their "downstream" members without giving products or bonuses in return.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August, 1997, a group of top local direct distributors linked to a public-listed direct-selling company, Amway, is under investigation by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

The group is Jim Dornan's Network 21. In Malaysia, Network 21 is unlicensed. According to government officials, the company was using the licence of the public-listed company (Amway) to sell its product.

By using the licence, they altered the marketing plan of the listed company to suit its needs."

Do you know of incidents involving illegal, unethical, or immoral practices by Amway distributors? Send us the information so we can add to our list of upstanding citizens here.