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In Reply to: world financial group div. of Aegon,N.V. posted by Pat Ferraro on January 11, 2001 at 14:19:21:
Let WFG/WMA CEO & Swindler-in-Chief Humphrey Refute this on the WFG official web-site(huberthumphrey@wmas.com)
The WMA(aka WFG) advertises itself at http://www.worldfinancialgroup.com/, though all of the information about products and income at the official site is deliberately vague. It advertises an Internet service provider also through zillionaire.com. The Internet is littered with false claims about income, success, and the WMA’s financial products. Most of the claims are posted anonymously, or with false names.
1. Read the May 2000 Money magazine expose of the WMA by Pat Regnier and Amy Feldman. Pat Regnier is a mutual-funds expert and former Morningstar analyst. Also go to the NASD web-site and run an online search to obtain a report on the WMA's CRD record(http://www.nasdr.com/2001.asp). The WMA's CRD number is 32625. Note that the WMA illegally withheld nearly 900 complaints regarding misrepresentations of its VUL insurance product(see http://www.nasdaqnews.com/news/pr2000/ne_section00_185.html).
2. Beware of Fraudulent High Income Claims:
WMA agents have been known to falsely claim high incomes: A “six-figure income” is a common claim. If any WMA agent makes a claim about earning a high income through the WMA(or that it is his only source of income), insist upon receiving a personal photocopy of his federal income tax return. Take the return and submit it, without explanation, to: The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division(http://www.treas.gov/irs/ci/index.htm). If the information provided by the agent is legitimate, he will have nothing to fear whatsoever. If he fails to provide this proof, do not do business with him. The WMA/WFG has been challenged numerous times, including by certified letter, to post the income/expense frequency-distribution data for all of its multi-level-marketing distributors(to date) on its official web-site, but WMA Securities President Barry Clause(BarryC@wmas.com) and WMA/WFG CEO Hubert Humphrey have absolutely refused to do so. Dr. Jon Taylor sent a marketing survey to the top 60 US multi-level-marketing firms approximately 2 years ago, but Humphrey and the WMA refused to provide the information, as doing so would provide obvious evidence that the organization constituted an illegal pyramid scheme(Taylor Network Marketing Payout Distribution Study Download(Microsoft)
http://whatisgood.com/docs/). If you are a victim of the WMA pyramid scheme, you may wish to download a copy of this survey and send it to Hubert Humphrey(perhaps with a subpoena stapled to it) at:
11315 Johns Creek Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097-1517
The WMA should furnish you with information regarding likely annual income, and termination rates(with terminations by category) consistent with federal and state franchise laws. See CFR 436 (http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_00/16cfr436_00.html), and your own state franchise laws. The WMA is currently illegally defying a 1998 Desist and Refrain Order Issued by the California Department of Corporations requiring it to comply with the California franchise law. The law would require the WMA to provide honest and accurate information about income and success to its pyramid-scheme recruit victims. A record of the order may be found at the NASD regulation web-site if you do a firm search for the WMA.Again, the WMA refused to comply with this order, as it would actually provide evidence that it was engaged in criminal activity(i.e., it has no choice by to stonewall).
3. Check Previous Employment Claims for Fraud:
If any WMA agent claims to have left a lucrative job in the finance(or any other) industry, go to http://www.nasdr.com/2000.htm to check his 10-year resume on file with the NASD. The CRD number for the WMA is 32625. Even this “resume” information may be erroneous, as it is the responsibility of the WMA, not the NASD, to verify the employment claims. To further verify the information, obtain phone listings for the companies on the resume and call them before writing anyone a check or signing a contract. If you find no phone listings for any of the firms, certainly don't do business with the agent. WMA agents have also been known to (770)453-9300 themselves as former engineers. Agents have also been known to misrepresent their educational backgrounds in order to establish credibility. If someone makes his educational background an issue by mentioning it, insist upon seeing the diploma. Write down the degree, name, and date of graduation for possible future reference.
The WMA was actually founded by Hubert Humphrey, who is a college dropout, former salesman for multi-level-marketing firms Amway and Primerica(then A.L. Williams), and who actually managed to fail a notoriously-easy securities-licensing exam 4 times in a row before passing. The other 2 major founders(and major stockholders) Monte Holm and Richard Thawley are a former construction worker and employee of the San Diego State Athletic Department, respectively. Humphrey has clearly taught his multi-level-marketing minions everything he knows about finance, as he is regularly referred to in company announcements as, e.g., “a visionary leader...” He was quoted in the May 2000 issue of Money magazine as brilliantly describing VUL insurance as “peanut butter in a chocolate wrapper.” Another memorable adage from this purported financial genius is “Stumble forward. An imperfect plan violently executed right now is better than a perfect plan delayed to a future date.”
4. Illegal Recruiting/Pyramid Scheme:
If a WMA agent emphasizes recruiting, rather than sales of a product(VULs, e.g.), then you are being asked to join an illegal pyramid scheme(see: http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.htm, paragraph 4). If, as a recruit, you are pressured into buying a product yourself(especially VUL life insurance), or are asked to take inordinately expensive training classes through the WMA(an “investment in training”), then the agent is engaging in “inventory loading,” and you are being asked to join an illegal pyramid scheme. See the new Pyramid Scheme Alert web-site and follow the links(http://www.pyramidschemealert.org). In either instance, report this immediately to the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) at https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01. Making payments until the day you are ultimately nailed shut into your coffin and hurled into a pit, or MRT insurance contained within the VUL, certainly constitute “loading.”
A former web-site for the WMA cited data from the 1999 WMA annual report, which indicated that the organization had recruited 272,000+ members and 8,400 licensed employees to date. As a securities license is necessary in order to make sales of their VUL and variable-annuity products, the 263,600+ members are clear losers as they at least pay a $100-$200 processing fee upon signing the MLM distributorship contract(see the California Department Corporations 1998 Desist & Refrain Order forbidding the WMA from any additional sales of its MLM franchises in California).
Contact the San Francisco office of the Department for details through http://www.nasaa.org/nasaa/abtnasaa/memberweb.html. Additionally a portion of the 8,400 licensed agents will also be net losers: these are clear pyramid-scheme numbers.
For claims about multi-level-marketing opportunities in general, see http://members.tripod.com/~nomorescams/fitzpatrick.htm. Also go to http://www.mlmlaw.com and browse the collection of cases brought against m-l-m firms for deception and fraud. Note that the presidents of these companies have been found to have lied about their personal wealth, top agents' incomes, the products, you name it. For information as to how MLM(Multi-Level-Marketing) firms operate as cults, see the information about Amway, for example at http://www.freedomofmind.com/groups/amway/amo_qmo.asp. WMA founder Hubert Humphrey spent his formative years in Amway, though the cult brainwashing techniques employed by the WMA/WFG most resemble the Asian Communist totalitarian regimes similar to those described by Lifton(http://www.rickross.com/reference/info2.html). A number of rather dubious individuals from current and former totalitarian regimes are employed by the WMA, including FBI-suspected neutron-warhead spy for the People’s Republic of China Gwo-Bao Min(CRD Number 1023694).
See:
http://www.gertzfile.com/excerpt2.html
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a38f718653699.htm
http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/China/ChinaArsenal.html
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/lee1217.htm
Additionally, a number of WMA agents travel regularly to totalitarian regimes such as the PRC and VDR, including a WMA agent who was the last person to see a murdered WMA recruit alive and immediately hopped a plane to the PRC before being questioned by police(see: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.20.00/wang-0003.html).
WMA agent and luminary, Executive Marketing Director Matthew Fletcher, has been indicted for murder(http://da.co.la.ca.us/mr/2002/030102a.htm). His NASD file contained improprieties indicating obvious character flaws(former employment at Primerica, unpaid liens, and policy misrepresentation). He has been reported on Internet message boards as being involved in the WMA’s VUL Home-Mortgage scam.