Remember the group of ambulance chasers that filled a Class Action suit just a day or two after California did?

Well, they’re at it again. (sigh….)

Apparently, being told “no” more times than I can count over the last 3 years isn’t enough and the group has been able to “vacate the judgment” and have it sent back to the Honorable Judge Murphy to re-hash this mess all over again.

For those that don’t know legalese “vacating the judgment” basically means the panel of three Judges put a “void” stamp on Judge Murphy’s dismissal and it’s being tossed back yet again.

Over the years we’ve had some very stern comments towards the Plaintiff’s in this case from the District Court.

Here are some of the quotes we’ve seen towards the Plaintiff’s in their motions (yes, plural) to dismiss:

“ungainly monster of 39 pages containing 133 paragraphs“

“In fact, pursuing discovery in the hopes of turning up something that may lead to a lawsuit seems to the Court to be the very definition of a fishing expedition.”

“As a general rule the Court is not fond of “ill-founded requests for reconsideration of matters previously decided,” given that such requests “needlessly take the court’s attention from current matters and visit inequity upon opponents who, prevailing in an earlier proceeding, must nevertheless defend their position again and again.”

“the Court does not intend to spend a great deal more judicial time than it already has spent in hashing over with Plaintiffs“

“So long as they are in this Court, however, litigants and their counsel do well not to treat the Court’s rulings “as mere first drafts, subject to revision and reconsideration at a litigant’s pleasure“

And my personal favorite:

“authorizing a court sua sponte to strike “redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter” contained in a pleading“

I have to admit, after being raked over the coals so many times by the Court like this, mustering up the nerve to go back takes balls. (Excuse the metaphor.)

But such is the life of an Anti-MLM Zealot. Remember, they’re right, we’re wrong and there’s simply nothing one can do to calm the fears and outrageous perceptions they have surrounding a business model that’s been around for well over a century now.

You may be asking yourself at this point why these “victims” don’t just recoup their investment from the Illinois Settlement that set aside $150K for those who want to grab it. I can’t say for sure, but I’d speculate that the Attorney’s in this Class Action have spent way to much time and money on this over the last three years, and they’re desperate to get something out of this witch hunt. The Attorney’s after all will get a far better “pay day” than the entire Class combined. Just like California who pocketed $875K in the California settlement, leaving a mere $125K for the victims the suit was designed to protect.

To add insult to injury concerning this pleading, it was revealed two years ago that the Plaintiffs in this case have an average of 8 months of dabbling in the business.

Here’s a list of the who’s – who and their time spent “selling travel”.

• Courtney Speed – 4 months
• Kwame Thompson – 4 months
• Grace Perry – 5 months
• John Stull – 6 months
• Faye Morrison – 11 months
• Jeff and Polly Hartman – 18 months

On Saturday, when I wrote about the companies renewed focus on Travel, I revealed that I personally didn’t make money my first year in the business. (2005) Going back, my total commissions for travel was less than $26.00 that year. That said, I did however have bookings that produced travel commissions in year two and beyond.

For example: A client books a cruise with BandBVacations.com today for July, 2012. A deposit is made of around $100 per person for that cruise at the time of booking. Obviously, a cruise line can’t pay commissions to the agent based on a deposit that’s a fraction of the total sale. But somehow, YTB is expected to produce that commission, otherwise it’s labeled as “unprofitable”.

Second, while the suit claims that all the plaintiffs in the suit were both RTA’s and Reps with the company, it’s my understanding that at least one of the names listed was only a Rep, and never paid a dime to YTB to become an RTA enabling said plaintiff to even sell travel. Kind of hard to make money selling travel when you don’t even have a booking engine. In addition, a Rep position is, as it always has been – free. If it wasn’t free, then people would be required to actually “pay for the opportunity to recruit others”.

Payments to YTB Travel is as they’ve always been are to enable someone to sell travel with our Host Agency. Just like Nexion, Uniglobe, Expedia Cruise Ship Centers, or Coral Sands Travel. It’s a business like any other. What you do to produce income from it is up to you. But I’d highly recommend spending more than four or five months at anything you try before you up and quit. That my friends are the individual’s shortcomings – not the business.

I have no clue how long this go around will take to muddle through. I do however, hope that this go around will separate truth from the glorified hype and outlandish claims made by a group who has used words like “failed”, “corrected”, “deficiency”, “amending”, “incorrectly”, and “realized after 100 hours of arguing” in their pleadings over the last three years.

Such is the case of this suit and these Plaintiff’s that have more lives than a cat.

Idiots.

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They simply find the people who are ready for them.

As I sit here on the eve of another YTB / ZamZuu National Convention in St. Louis, I’m astounded how this company has changed my life to look for opportunity. How it’s prepared and molded my mind for business success. I’ve now overcome the fear of the word “no”, and in that same vein – it’s helped me help others who were willing and open to opportunity themselves.

Not everyone has taken advantage of the opportunities presented to them. I think it was Edison who said “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” There’s a reason why the word “work” is placed in this industry we call Net”work” Marketing.

If you really study the MLM model, and become a student of the industry you’ll find that this model instills a work ethic and business savvy that you won’t find in any school. It lays a foundation of real – practical business principles and practices that you just can’t find anywhere else.

That being said – I realize that there are so called “experts” out there who will attempt to argue the points I’ve laid claim to above. You (and they) know the ones that I’m talking about. The obnoxious loud mouths who believe they know better than we do – who have it all figured out. Keep in mind that these are the same jerks who warned everyone three years ago that YTB was going to be shut down by the California Attorney General on the eve of the 2008 National Convention. Their experience has taught them that a company that finds themselves in the midst of a $25 million lawsuit will fold like a wet noodle.

I’ve seen instances of companies actually crumbling for far less money and vicious accusations or monetary compensation – but then again, the examples I can recall are traditional business models – not Network Marketing companies.

Companies like Amway, Herbalife, PrePaid Legal, USANA, NuSkin, and YTB have all been victimized by lawsuits claiming they’re some sort of scam and survived because these so called “experts” who get their little panties in a wad aren’t the business minds, or protectors of industry and justice they claim to be. At most, they’re opportunists themselves who take advantage of people’s fears and insecurity instead of instilling rational and logical thinking. It’s simply a chance for them to grab the spotlight and make themselves feel important.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb I saw just the other day. “Those people who judge a books by their covers…..have difficulty reading!” When it comes to my experience with YTB and critics, that’s about as close to reality as it comes. With some of the outlandish, bizarre and irrational statements I’ve seen over the years surrounding not only MLM but YTB specifically by these people, that proverb pretty much nails it.

Something else I’ve learned over the years about these “experts”. When it comes to owning up to mistakes, inaccurate speculation, or just plain lies – they’re cowards. Actually, their mind, (more accurately “ego”) won’t allow them to admit they might be wrong. This perception they have is the only thing they have to hang on too.

Let me give you an example.

Last week, I was talking with one of our Directors about the once infamous John Frenaye. If there’s anyone who’s fallen prey to speculation and rumors it’s John. The guy would fall for just about anything posted on the internet as “truth” or “fact” if it has a negative ring to it. Even when there nothing there, he’ll manage to create it just to grab some attention. You can only imagine how “excited” John must have been when word of the California lawsuit was announced the night before the 2008 Convention. You’d think the simple filling of this suit meant it was a done deal the way he sensationalized the cover of this suit.

But those of us who went beyond the simple cover, and actually read the verbiage and actually comprehend our business had a completely different take. So much so, that this Director made a bet with Mr. Frenaye.

Sometime after the suit was filed, the two made this gentlemen’s bet. If the suit was indeed accurate, John would get what he wanted. The total and complete illumination of a so called pariah in an industry he actually doesn’t own but merely works in.

If however the suit wasn’t successful in shutting down YTB like Jerry Brown boldly proclaimed he could do – there would be a public apology by John at the next National Convention in St. Louis.

While there was an attempt to make some sort of assurances that John would keep his word on this – according to the account of the Director who made this bet – John’s enormous ego wouldn’t permit him to even speculate any possibility that YTB could survive the cover of the claim.

The National Convention in St. Louis this week will be the third since the suit was first announced in 2008. Along the way there was a $100 Million Class Action filed which has been thrown out of court more times than a cat has lives, and another suit filed by the Illinois Attorney General that honestly just sat there collecting dust for two years before it quietly went away.

John being the gullible and clueless soul that he is obviously took the bet. In his mind – the cover matched his perception, and there was just no way on God’s green earth that he’d ever have to muster up any type of apology with these kind of stakes stacked up against a bunch of lowly MLM Yahoos.

Now I can understand the absence of a full-fledged apology in 2009. While John had certainly speculated that bankruptcy or the YTB Founders riding off into the sunset with everyone’s money was an absolute certainty by the time we all got together in St. Louis at the time, none of the facts about our model had really come to light a year later. Nor were any of the suits either settled or thrown out of court outright.

I’ll even let 2010 slide. He was after all holding on to a thread of hope that the laws as they’re currently written in Illinois would magically change or be re-written in his favor.

However, it’s now 2011 and all three suits have either been settled both legally and monetarily or been pummeled to death by the court system as being “redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter”.

So that begs a very serious question. Could this be the year that YTB gets the apology from this once infamous critic who now finds himself on the wrong end of this bet?

Honestly, I doubt it. Cowards like John and the other critics who have quietly removed themselves from the soap boxes they once stood on just don’t have it in them. The opportunity to correct the years of slander, malicious abuse and misleading information posted on No Travel MLMs will never go away.

Unfortunately, I don’t see John being ready. A far better alternative is to just quietly fade away like he has. However, because YTB will continue to hold National Conventions like the one this week in St. Louis – the opportunity for him to man up and do so will never go away. ;-P

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For anyone hoping that the one remaining defendant left in the Illinois Class Action would save the day – sorry. (Not really, but “sorry” sure sounds good!)

Saw this coming a mile away: If it’s going to be tried at all – it will have to be done in State Court. A guy who spent just 6 months attempting to become a “travel agent” and quit cause he couldn’t make any money. (Gee, a whole 6 months was all it took to figure it all out?)

This from KMOX news:

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (KMOX) — More now on the federal suit against an on-line travel business accused of operating a pyramid scheme.

A federal judge in Southern Illinois has formally dismissed the entire consumer lawsuit against Wood River-based YTB  – also known as Your Travel Biz .

The judge had dismissed most of the original plaintiffs last week, based on the fact they aren’t residents of Illinois where the company is based, but were suing under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act.   Now the court has ruled the final plaintiff, who is an Illinois resident, must take the case to state court.

Plaintiffs had alleged YTB was operating an illegal pyramid scheme.  YTB charges investors for the right to sell travel packages.  Investors claimed they weren’t able to make money without recruiting new investors.

The Illinois Attorney General has also filed a lawsuit against YTB based on consumer complaints.

~~~~

Two years of praying that $100 million would put YTB out of business…out with one last puff of smoke.

Buh – Bye

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According to YTB’s 10Q filing with the SEC, the office of the Illinois Attorney General has agreed to extend the date by which YTB must respond the Illinois complaint to this Wednesday, August 26, 2009. If you’re not aware, or forgotten due to last months Convention and the improvements YTB is currently enjoying we wanted to prepare you that another chapter is about to revealed for discussion of both pro and con on blogs, forums and message boards all over the internet. (We are talking about YTB after all!)

Before the ink was able to dry on the California Settlement on May 14th, Lisa Madigan, the Illinois Attorney General, filed their civil complaint against YTB and the Founders the same day. Many of the claims and allegations were a mirror image of what was found in the California complaint. Although Illinois had opened an ongoing “investigation” that started just days after the California complaint filed last August, 2008, Illinois apparently chose a “wait and see” attitude. (Possibly in the hope that California would be successful in shutting YTB down.)

YTB management obviously can’t discuss legal matters publicly or with the field. However the two words we hear over and over from the Founders and Executives is “very optimistic”. We would agree with this optimism based on the successful settlement agreement in California, and the Illinois class action that has already been thrown out. The allegations brought against the company are based in fear, myths, and deception and one needs to keep in mind that the foundation of court rulings and decisions are based on fact and documented law.

We’re not going to bore you, (or for that matter insult or taint your intelligence) with the gross misrepresentations and allegations made against YTB. Other than claims that YTB continues to promote Royal Caribbean, NCL and IATA as a benefit of joining – the premise of the entire complaint is based on the belief that one must to “pay to play” for the opportunity to recruit others into the YTB business. (The “gigantic pyramid scheme” mantra.)

We possibly need to elaborate for you, like YTB will this week with the courts that the YTB model, as it has always been from day one, does not require payment for the opportunity to recruit others. Nor does YTB “pay” someone simply to recruit.

The $449.95 provides a travel website and $49.95 a month provides the continued maintenance of a travel website in order to sell travel. (Travel sales generated from these travel websites were documented at $424 million in 2008) Payments to the field as either an Associate or Website Seller (Rep) are dependent on the travel site (or product) being sold and maintained. Most Host Agencies such as Uniglobe, Travel Planners International, Nexion, MTravel, Expedia Cruise ShipCenters, and Dugan’s Travels are also dependent on the sale of sites being sold to others (in order to therefore generate travel sales) and all charge a startup fee and monthly maintenance fee for website hosting and maintenance of a booking engine, support, training, licensing, and/or E&O insurance for their product or service.

As we’ve found so many times before, all the focus and attention is pinned directly on the Network Marketing aspect of the company while all rules, customs, and normal business practices are thrown out the window. Instead of YTB keeping the money generated from payments of $449.95 and $49.95 a month as other hosts do, YTB pays field representatives for sales they produce and maintain in their own organization. Limiting beliefs are compounded by critics, Attorney Generals, and former Reps who failed, based on the fear that everyone does not have the same opportunity to generate income in this fashion. There are additional phobias based on the MLM model running out of prospects, instead of realizing that it takes personal responsibility, action and effort to build an organization. To compound the emotion of these fears and phobias, the model in some cases does generate millions of dollars of income for common everyday individuals who go to work, promote and build a business of other websites under them. (As documented in both the 2007 and 2008 Rep Income Disclosure Statements.)

The cost for such an opportunity? Not a single penny.

Avon, Mary Kay, PrePaid Legal, NuSkin, EcoQuest, Amway, Primerica, Fuller Brush, and HerbaLife have all built their business via the Network Marketing and Direct Sales model for multiple decades, generating billions, no…TRILLIONS in income. However, fears concerning the window of opportunity for YTB will soon end for someone at the bottom of the pyramid. Because of this unfounded and undocumented belief, there are those who feel its up to them to step in and protect others from something that has never – EVER happened.

Is there any question that YTB believes it has meritorious defenses to the claims and intends to vigorously defend its case based on fact, not perception?

Regardless of your keen understanding and intelligence to see YTB for what it truly is, YTB should be able to successfully defend the misrepresentation and limiting beliefs made in the complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney General. Unlike the many blogs, forums, and bizarre emotional outbursts we see concerning the YTB company, it’s Founders, and the people involved, on the internet – the legal system instead must favor on the side of actual documentation and facts, not perception.

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On Friday, I wrote about an absolutely ridiculous amended complaint filed by a group of "ambulance chasers" looking to score a quick buck. Outrageous claims were made in the re-filed amendment which stated YTB had perpetrated an illegal pyramid scheme that represents the largest fraud in the history of the State of Illinois! It further stated YTB was one of the largest frauds in this history of this nation, exceeded only by the likes of Bernie Madoff’s illegal Ponzi scheme.

Critics and Anti-MLM Zealots flocked to message boards, blogs, and trade publications to celebrate the new filing, with hopes that big bad YTB would soon perish from the industry. One “professional” went as far as calling the amended document “powerful” on his blog. The post even claimed Counsel had learned a thing or two from California just to make the claim stick. Questions were also raised if Coach would be sharing a cell with Mr. Madoff as a closing chapter of his new book “The Fourth Quarter”.

After reading the amended filing, I was amused regarding the terminology used by Counsel in the complaint. I pointed out that words like “failed”, “corrected”, “deficiency”, “amending”, “incorrectly”, and “realized after 100 hours of arguing” placed doubt if this amendment had teeth or substance. If the first filing was riddled with errors, how was it right now?

I spent part of my weekend discussing with other Director’s and TSO’s which prompted a hardy laugh over YTB’s ability to steal from other Brick and Mortar Travel Agencies putting them out of business. We also questioned how anyone could think that 4 months would be enough time to effectively work either an MLM opportunity or Travel Business.

Critics also went round and round this past weekend, with their own illusions surrounding this amended complaint. The self proclaimed MLM expert was once again (as he and other Zealots have always been) incapable of understanding any perspective other than their own. After a very creative play with my words in Fridays article, the attention was placed back on YTB and my beliefs. By doing this, it raised the same question that has been asked of me many times over the last year.

Can I have a “warm fuzzy” concerning the legal actions brought against YTB?

I responded in part with the following comment:

I do have a warm fuzzy and have enjoyed how our legal system is making everyone cross their T’s and dot it’s I’s. Like the California legal process, the process in Illinois not only points out but apparently knows what the law is. While neither claim filed in each state enjoys the same luxury you have here on the internet, I know that their claims, unlike you, are being held accountable to prove the accusations made in regard to actual law.

We finally found a system and process that knows how to read, comprehend, and logically work through things in order to set the record straight.

While it’s taking some time, and we have to endure you’re idiosyncrasies with words, phobias, and obsession with YTB, much has already been brought to light to show the truth.

Little did I realize when I wrote that response to John Frenaye, how quickly the Court would respond.

I mentioned how humorous I found the accusations made in this amended filing. Please understand, that I’ve been dealing with critics for some time. I have come to the conclusion that correcting or educating any of these dolts is a fairy tale. While I could get upset, frustrated, or angry with them for ignoring simple, straight forward facts that I’ve actually experienced to be true, critics are no longer worth the amount of energy.

The Honorable G. Patrick Murphy who has been ruling in this class action complaint was not amused however. In fact, he essentially took the “ungainly monster of 39 pages containing 133 paragraphs“, rolled it into a cone, and used it as an instrument to whack Plaintiffs Counsel upside the back of their heads.

Judge Murphy filed his response on Monday to the amended complaint filed just last week on July 15th. It’s important to read this short response in full to feel the tone of this ruling which was penned by the District Judge. His words clearly vibrate frustration with Counsel concerning this amended filing “that likely does not pass muster under the familiar federal “notice pleading” standard”. The ruling also states that “a good deal of the flabbiness in the sprawling pleading before the Court consists of paragraphs of legal argument challenging the Court’s earlier dismissal of the ICFA claims of the non-Illinois Plaintiffs”.

There are many points of interest in this ruling that should be noted for everyone.

Although no responsive pleading has been filed in this case, the Court’s dismissal of the case pursuant to its June 5, 2009, order terminated Plaintiffs’ right to file an amended complaint as a matter of course. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a); Wheeler v. Pension Value Plan for Employees of Boeing Co., No. 06-cv-500-DRH, 2007 WL 2608875, at **3-4 (S.D. Ill. Sept. 6, 2007) (collecting cases). Accordingly, the Court will strike the First Amended Consolidated Complaint in this case. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f) (authorizing a court sua sponte to strike “redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter” contained in a pleading). If Plaintiffs wish to file their First Amended Consolidated Complaint as it is pleaded currently, they will file a motion requesting leave of Court to do so. In their motion Plaintiffs should bear in mind that the Court’s order entered June 5, 2009, establishes the law of the case, from which the Court is unlikely to depart absent a showing of compelling reasons to do so.

While I’m certain some will continue to argue this point, the amended filing was not the least bit “powerful” but instead exposed for what it really was by the Court. Redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matters may work for some on the internet via the blogs and forums populated by a few critics. When it comes to a Court of Law, you should present some sort of substance to an individual who obviously knows the law. Since none was found, the amended complaint was kick back out and exposed what it really is.

A big ol’ pile of horse dung.

While some spend a vast amount of time twisting and spinning every move YTB makes based on stereotypes and myths surrounding pyramid schemes and scams on the internet, a Court of Law is clearly a different story.

As a general rule the Court is not fond of “ill-founded requests for reconsideration of matters previously decided,” given that such requests “needlessly take the court’s attention from current matters and visit inequity upon opponents who, prevailing in an earlier proceeding, must nevertheless defend their position again and again.”

It’s sad to say, but it’s SO true. Critics never give up their position. For some, giving up or admitting wrong would shatter their very existence. Especially those who blog and post their dribble day after day. You also need to remember that because both the California complaint that took almost a year to settle, and now the new light of this ruling regarding the Class Action, each day that passed without a resolution added validation of their illusions. The words “gigantic pyramid scheme” still ringing in their ears.

If you say it enough times, it’s got to be true…right? Rex Carr said it, and they’re the best from what we’ve been told.

Here’s one last statement in the ruling from the Court. I want you to read this and take it to heart. Going into the Convention which is now just days away, we as a company need to have this same attitude towards those that are attacking and slandering YTB and it’s members.

Put another way, the Court does not intend to spend a great deal more judicial time than it already has spent in hashing over with Plaintiffs and their counsel the matter of whether under the circumstances of this case non-residents of Illinois are entitled to maintain claims under the ICFA. Parties aggrieved by the Court’s rulings always have the option of seeking review of those rulings in a higher court at an appropriate time. So long as they are in this Court, however, litigants and their counsel do well not to treat the Court’s rulings “as mere first drafts, subject to revision and reconsideration at a litigant’s pleasure[.]”

Remember, this isn’t a journalist, a blogger, or an anonymous poster we know only as a screen name. This court filing and it’s view is indeed valid. When it comes to actual law surrounding the allegations and claims regarding YTB, we now have something we as a company can use to combat the very small but obnoxiously loud cult of critics. They desperately want to see an end to YTB based on their illusions and will gravitate and attach to any other illusion similar, regardless of any verification of fact or documentation.

Personally, I find the document filed by the Court pure poetry. It’s refreshing and energizing to see someone with this level of expertise and stature validate what I’ve been saying about critics for years. A very valuable score in the pursuit of truth, enlightenment, and justice.

To the Honorable G. Patrick Murphy:

With all the sincerity, gratitude, and humility I can find, I want to thank you for your swift and decisive response concerning the recent ill-founded amendment filed in your Court. Thank you for protecting my business and thousands of others who not only appreciate YTB for what it truly is, but admire and respect the Founders who have created it.

In addition thank you for exposing the outrageous claims for what they truly are. Ill-conceived, and defective perceptions regarding a company and model that has withstood the test of time.

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