FHTM -Fortune Hi-tech marketing review: Beware of Scams 8

Paul Orberson Buries Fortune Hi-tech Marketing

Ever since FHTM was shut down by the FTC and three AG’s from NC, Kentucky and Illinois, January 2013, a few of the top leaders like Joel McNinch were preaching the wait and see game. Comments found on various blog sites sounded like, “Hang in there. It will be tough but we will get through this. Paul & Tom are fighting for all of us.” Websites from ESM Brock Keen popped up all over the place and they thought they could take back Google searches with URL’s like www.fhtmstrong.com and www.fhtmftc.com .This small group of representatives led by McNinch promised FHTM would be back, bigger and better than ever. They were excited about FHTM 2.0, as they called it.

They claimed the FTC was illegally harassing FHTM and they stood by the bogus principles of honesty, integrity and love for one another. They claimed the FHTM family was strong and could and more importantly, would, survive this attack by the federal government.

The select few leaders to follow Paul, or shall I say Cheryl Orberson (that is the name they had to use at Zija to prevent Paul from being in contempt of the TRO) included Joel McNinch, JoAnne McMahon, Kevin Mullins, Alexis Adame and Pastor Brown. Joel was heard bragging that he earned the Zija Mercedes in the first 3 days. Will the FTC go after Paul for intentionally using the reps and customers of the defunct FHTM for his own benefit? Time will tell.

The saddest part of this giant fiasco is that many of these folks on his team believed them. They hung in there. They claimed that during the first hearing set for February 7th that FHTM and Paul would be vindicated by the truth that they had done nothing wrong for the past 12 years. A handful of NSM’s and ESM’s still believed that Orberson was a God and would never be found guilty of any wrong doing. Some of these cult followers actually thought they had done nothing wrong. They truly believed they were helping people. Many had already left. The low hanging fruit was falling off the tree very fast.

During the past few weeks, Cheryl Orberson was leading prayer vigils to save herself and FHTM. This was just a way for Paul and a select few to keep people hanging in there while he tried to save himself from prison.

The vultures were out trying to solicit as many FHTM members for their own MLM’s. Solicitations and offers were running rampart all over the social media sites.

By Valentine’s Day weekend 2013, the truth surfaces and the real motives become more apparent. The tone has changed radically with the comments on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The blogging stopped.

What will happen to all of those Executive managers that committed to leasing a new Lexus or BMW for four years on the hopes they would continuously qualify for the $800 a month reimbursement from FHTM? Many of them had lost those cars to repossession prior to FHTM being shut down. Now that it’s been over a month, and all of these full time clowns have zero income from the FHTM scam. Will the rest of the high end autos be given back to BMW leasing? A better and more interesting question is, “How will these lease defaults and repossessions, effect the long credit rating of those who cannot now, nor could they ever, afford the payments on these toys? So many had an aura of success when it was nothing more than a balloon filled with hot air. The recent action let the air out of these balloons and the permanent harm will be felt for decades to come.

When Paul and his group of new Illinois attorney’s asked for a continuance of the February 7th hearing until March 13th it was for one thing and one thing only. It was designed to give him enough time to figure out what he was going to do next in life and to try to negotiate a deal with the FTC lawyers to keep his ### out of prison. Was he negotiating for just himself or did he include Tom Mills and others in the talks?

Orberson & Mills knew, in the back of their minds, that they had been boxed into a corner and regardless of the amount of money they could throw at the situation, it wouldn’t get them out of trouble this time. This wasn’t like the previous actions of Montana and Texas. They couldn’t manipulate and lie their way out of it this time because a receiver had seized everything belonging to Paul, Tom and all of the FHTM related companies.

These gangsters should have heeded the warning signs back in 2010 and made peace with Isaacs, but their giant egos wouldn’t allow common sense to guide their actions. Had they bought his toolset, for the $2.5 million in 2010, instead of suing him they wouldn’t have lost their multi-million dollar cash cow and probably would have been able to continue operations for many more years? Hindsight is definitely 20/20. Even if they had bought Isaacs out and shelved his social network and webinar system they would be millions ahead of the game and Orberson wouldn’t have had his glorious reputation destroyed in the process. FHTM had spent ten times more money on lawyers to save them, than Isaacs had ever wanted for his toolset. Stupidity rules when business common sense isn’t part of the equation.

In spite of it all, and in contradiction to the terms of the Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting Paul or Tom for taking advantage of the customer lists of FHTM, they continued to mislead everyone affiliated with FHTM. The very essence of the FTC action continued for Orberson. He continued to plan behind the scenes to find a way to abandon FHTM while searching for a new scam to affiliate himself with. Paul was still just being his arrogant self-centered self as he had been for the past 20 years. No humility, no truth, and no compassion for the hundreds of thousands that had been intentionally hurt or destroyed by his evil corrupt scandalous ways.
How and why did he choose to affiliate with a company that is not a member of the DSA and never made it onto the DSN Global 100 list? Was he, or more likely a family member, not a party to the FTC lawsuit, paid big bucks to come their? Did he once again promise more than he could deliver? After all, he claimed FHTM would be a billion dollar company in 2010 and now it’s defunct. Was he making the same ridiculous promises to the owners of Zija? It was mentioned that way in the Joel McNinch team call over the weekend.

#1 FHTM rep, from Excel originally, Ruel Morton had taken his team to Shaklee. The #2 FHTM rep, Todd Rowland, made a startling revelation to the world, on Valentine’s Day that he no longer wanted to be associated with the Paul Orberson name any longer. Todd supposedly had made millions with FHTM yet was always broke. He refused to follow Paul and let his family be manipulated by the “King of Crap” any longer. He obviously had enough. The class action lawsuits that ruined his good name, the AG investigations and now the total closure of FHTM had been more than he could mentally bear. Todd didn’t just move his team to another MLM to keep his revenues flowing. He blatantly told everyone he had had enough of the Orberson lies and troubles. Where did the other Presidential ambassador’s go? Were they done with network marketing? I highly doubt it.

The next day, Friday, another wonderful conference call was held. This time it was the entire Canadian Team. They had all held together and held strong. They were willing to go to the ends of the earth for Paul as long as they continued to believe that Paul was fighting for them. Jordanna Linic opened by saying she was so distraught in what she had been told by Paul Orberson personally the night before she was in tears then and still was. They were angry, confused and stunned by Orberson’s latest actions. The shock that Orberson had thrown everyone under the bus by abandoning FHTM was too much for these good people. She claimed that Paul no longer wanted to fight for anyone but himself and that he had, a week earlier, agreed to a deal with the FTC, so he could go to Zija and start again.

This is a bit confusing. In 2009 representatives claimed that Orberson was the Michael Jordan of the network marketing industry. He was an icon that made more money that anyone else had. He was the first guy to make a million a month and did so for 44 consecutive months. If this guy had made so much money in the past, like close to 100 million, why would he have to go to work now? Was Orberson finally as broke as all of the families he had harmed all of these years? Did he have money stashed outside the USA in other family member’s names? Was the FTC going to give him back any of his money they had already seized or was he broke and forced to get an MLM job and start from the bottom? What was going to happen to Tom Mills in this fiasco?

It is unlikely that Zija would put Orberson in a position of having to build anything. In all reality they gave him a position at or near the top of their pyramid, because he promised to bring thousands with him who would do most of the dirty work. He was setting up Joe McNinch for failure again and he for glorified egotistical success.

If he brought enough leaders from FHTM that still felt he was worth following, he would quickly become a shining star in Zija, at the expense of many again. The leaders would pound the streets for recruits and the sale of self-consumed, garage qualified, representatives.

What was happening to Jeff Orberson and Tom Mills? No rumbling have been heard about these two since the FTC raid in January. Were they thrown under the bus by Paul too? Were they going to resurface in another deal someday soon or had they turned against Paul to save themselves? How loyal was the Jr. Orberson to his dad and visa-versa?

What happened to their high priced in house general counsel? Was Keith Kuder going to be able to find a job elsewhere in the MLM industry or did the FTC action seal his fate forever? His reputation now supersedes itself. He went from general counsel at ACN to unauthorized (not a Kentucky Bar member) general counsel at FHTM that was closed. How does one put that on a resume when seeking a position with another MLM? The wording will be interesting and his new career even more fascinating.

Orberson finally conceded this past weekend that he buried FHTM a week earlier. He left everyone hanging thinking he was going to win the battle, even though he knew otherwise. He finally begins to call his top leaders informing them that FHTM will no longer be. He tries to recruit those he feels might still be loyal to him and could be beneficial in his fight to make a comeback once again. He has very little luck. Too many individual leaders are fed up. The worst part is that they are still subject to claw-back, from the court appointed receiver, for all of the ill-gotten gains they received during their tenure with Paul. Will the hearing on the 13th of March also be cancelled and a deal entered into the case. What will happen to the battered offices and warehouses of FHTM, Alan Clark Holdings and True Essentials? When will the liquidation begin and how long will it take for the victims of the Orberson scam to see restitution?

The best part of Orberson finally conceding that FHTM is dead is that he can no longer be a parasite to Isaacs, the whistle-blower that became famous by exposing the truth about FHTM and Orberson back in 2010. Once Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing is finally closed permanently, either by agreement or court order, the Motion for Breach they filed last year against the settlement agreement must be dropped. A company no longer in business can’t pursue Isaacs any longer. A company with no money can’t pay a team of high priced attorneys to destroy him any longer. Will Isaacs finally get the opportunity to try and put his life back on track and fully recover from the series of heart issues caused by the stupid FHTM litigation over the past three years? Is the roller-coaster ride finally over for Isaacs?

Even better will be when the receiver allows the release of funds, held by the Arbitrator in escrow, to rightfully go back to Isaacs. After all, these funds weren’t earned by affiliation with the FHTM pyramid scheme. They were earned by Isaacs as a result of legal bills incurred when this upstanding Good Samaritan decided to begin a process of truth telling that resulted in Orberson finally relinquishing FHTM to the courts. The battle has been three long years. He deserves closure and certainly the return of monies agreed to in 2011 for legal bills incurred by him. The funds were definitely not ill-gotten gains.

Isaacs has already agreed to stay on and help the receiver recover as much as they can, from the select few, in hopes of refunding as much as possible to the 500, 000+ victims that have been run over by FHTM since 2001. This will be the satisfaction and gratification he has wanted since day one.

“My heart and prayers go out to the masses that have been harmed financially, emotionally and mentally by Orberson, Mills, FHTM and their group of hand-picked cronies”, say Isaacs.

“I am truly sorry for all of the victims that have been devastated by FHTM over the years. Being the only one, at times, who stood up for all of you wasn’t easy, but it was something I thought I needed to do. I only hope everyone appreciates my motivation and one day the thanks will come back to me. I have been ridiculed, lied about, my online reputation has been destroyed and I almost died in 2011 but I never lost sight of my goal to let everyone know the true meaning of what FHTM was doing”, he adds.

Canadian Police Bring Criminal Fraud Charges against MLM...

Does this sound familiar? Is FHTM founder next?

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the province of Manitoba in central Canada have brought criminal fraud charges against a prominent multi-level marketing company, its president and 12 of its promoters. The prosecution is a clear warning to any consumer about the risks of joining or recruiting for a multi-level marketing company. Previous lack of prosecution or claims of legality by the company are no protection. This MLM company had never been prosecuted. It held public recruitment meetings all over Canada, advertised with billboards and had thousands of loyal supporters.

The MLM, called Business in Motion, was the subject of a national television news exposé in 2009, in which Pyramid Scheme Alert president, Robert FitzPatrick, went undercover with the news producers, attending a recruitment meeting with hidden cameras and microphones. He was later interviewed on the show to explain and analyze the scheme’s deceptive income promise and pyramid business model. The company president, Alan Kippax, now charged with criminal fraud, aggressively defended BIM on the same show, arguing that the company had never been prosecuted or even investigated.

BIM President, Alan Kippax (CBC Photo), Charged with Criminal Fraud

The news program also showed video of police arresting Canadian consumer advocate, David Thornton, founder of crimebustersnow.com, while he peacefully and legally protested the BIM scheme and warned consumers that it was fraudulent. He was later released without charges, raising the obvious question of whether local police were protecting the BIM scheme. The news program also showed how the Canadian Competition Bureau, equivalent to the US Federal Trade Commission, remained silent in the face of mounting evidence of fraud. The Competition Bureau still has not prosecuted the scheme or even issued a warning to consumers.

A 2nd incriminating class-action lawsuit was filed against FHTM this past week in a California court on 12/22/10. Seems like the perfect Christmas present for their legal team who can now bill for more millions in fees.

The entire lawsuit may be read at www.fhtmclassaction.info

Fortune Hi Tech Being invesigated By North Carolina Attorney General

From MLM review website:
Another State Attorney General is investigating Fortune Hi Tech Marketing (FHTM) as a Pyramid Scheme. At some point, the reps in the field are going to become weary of the story about several former attorney generals saying everything is OK at Fortune. North Carolina is the third state in a very short period of time to investigate FHTM. Having 2 old ex Attorney Generals and an ex Reagan AG on their staff has not made them nor kept them legal. In North Carolina the consumer protection laws are very clear: If you charge to get into the business or pay anything as a bonus for recruiting (regardless if products are sold) YOU ARE ILLEGAL!

StarNewsOnline:
A spokeswoman for the attorney general, Noelle Talley, said investigators with the consumer protection division are concerned about Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing's operations in North Carolina. Investigators are reviewing more than a dozen consumer complaints to determine if the company's activities violate state laws, and the office was contacting other attorney generals to exchange information and review what kinds of complaints they had received, Talley said. The investigation began earlier this fall.

This is after Montana and North Dakota shut down Fortune Hi Tech for periods of time.

Oh you are so wrong! FRT2008 Telling the truth will never go out of style. Thanks to everyone for coming out and helping people know the truth.
Hey if Betty and Jim Miles leave Fortune then you know something has got to be up!
Go to www.fhtmclassaction dot info to see the latest BREAKING NEWS!

Yvonne...no one else wants to get on your lawsuit bandwagon...it is a waste of your time, and it would be a waste of theirs. Keep lurking though...just think if you had spent this much time on your FHTM business you wouldn't have to resort to this.

If you have been cheated by Fortune or feel that FORTUNE has mislead you into thinking that they had contracts with all of these companies or any other issues, then please email us at cheatedbyfortune at yahoo.com
This is not to recruit you to anything else.

Whistleblower fights back after frivolous suit by FHTM for exposing their ILLEGAL Pyramid Scheme

Lexington, Kentucky - June 16, 2010 - In light of all of the recent investments scams including the infamous Bernie Maddoff, whistleblowers and those with morals fear that the frauds they expose will result in unjust lawsuits filed against them by the companies they complain about. One such situation was that of the lawsuit filed by Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing against Fortune Social LLC and Joseph Isaacs in May 2010.

Joseph Isaacs and Fortune Social, LLC (collectively “Isaacs”) deny each and every claim brought by Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing, Inc. (“FHTM”) in a filing made today with the American Arbitration Association, who is overseeing this case. In addition, Isaacs fights back and asserts his own counterclaim for relief against FHTM, Paul C. Orberson (individually and in his capacity as President of FHTM), Jeff Orberson (individually and in his capacity as Chief Operating Officer of FHTM), and Thomas A. Mills (individually and in his capacity as Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of FHTM) (collectively “FHTM”). Isaacs counterclaim claim Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Breach of Contract, Common Law Fraud, Unfair & Deceptive Business Practices, Failure to Register Securities, Fraudulent Practices Regarding the Sale of Securities, Civil Racketeering Conspiracy (violation of the Federal RICO statutes) and Defamation.

FHTM operates an unlawful product-based endless recruiting pyramid scheme that relies on untrue and misleading representations and unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices. While FHTM purports to be in the business of selling name-brand services like wireless, satellite television, home security, vitamins, nutritional products and travel services, its true business is using consumers to generate fee income for representing non-existent partnerships, major sports figures, and prominent businessmen. To entice consumers to participate, FHTM makes untrue or misleading claims regarding its relationship with Fortune 100 companies like Verizon Wireless, GE Security, Dish Networks and Travelocity to create the illusion that consumers can become millionaires in three to five years.

FHTM’s growth exploded when it began to lure consumers disenchanted with traditional jobs and the recession that began in 2007 to inspirational and high-pressure business opportunity seminars touting an innovative business model that promises huge financial rewards through multi-level network marketing. FHTM erring presenters claim to have proprietary tools, special relationships, and other support that allow consumers to grow their own business by partnering with FHTM’s “companies”.

It would not be long before Isaacs (and the world) made several troubling discoveries about FHTM’s business plan and practices that doused his enthusiasm: (1) Paul Orberson had not made any special arrangements with the companies mentioned at the business opportunity/presentation seminar or in the company produced videos; (2) the only way to earn a significant income and be promoted up the ranks was to recruit additional IRs; (3) FHTM had not received regulatory approval for its pyramiding scheme in every state; (4) only a handful of IRs had earned anywhere near the residuals projected; (5) the prominent businessmen, politicians, former attorney generals and sports figures to whom FHTM constantly alluded were in fact IRs actively promoting their own FHTM business; and (6) a growing number of state attorneys general had already begun investigating FHTM in response to numerous complaints.

It turns out that FHTM’s ‘innovative’ marketing plan is nothing more than a face lift to an age-old scheme. According to the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau:

Pyramid schemes now come in so many forms that they may be difficult to recognize immediately. However, they all share one overriding characteristic. They promise consumers or investors large profits based primarily on recruiting others to join their program, not based on profits from any real investment or real sale of goods to the public. Some schemes may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure. There are two tell-tale signs that a product is simply being used to disguise a pyramid scheme: inventory loading and a lack of retail sales. Inventory loading occurs when a company's incentive program forces recruits to buy more products than they could ever sell, often at inflated prices. If this occurs throughout the company's distribution system, the people at the top of the pyramid reap substantial profits, even though little or no product moves to market. The people at the bottom make excessive payments for inventory that simply accumulates in their basements. A lack of retail sales is also a red flag that a pyramid exists. Many pyramid schemes will claim that their product is selling like hot cakes. However, on closer examination, the sales occur only between people inside the pyramid structure or to new recruits joining the structure, not to consumers out in the general public.

Nonetheless, the truth is catching up with FHTM. On December 10, 2009, The North Dakota Attorney General's Office filed a Cease and Desist Order for violation of the Consumer Fraud Law, the Transient Merchant Law, the Home Solicitation Sales Law, and the North Dakota Pyramid Schemes Act. On January 19, 2010, FHTM entered into a Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with the North Dakota Attorney General's Office. On March 16, 2010, the Montana State Auditor's Office filed a Temporary Cease and Desist Order against FHTM, Paul C. Orberson, Thomas A. Mills, and Dianne Graber (a Montana IR). According to the Montana State Auditor's Office, FHTM has engaged in acts or practices constituting violations of the Securities Act of Montana, Montana Code ANN.[protected] et seq. On April 22, 2010, FHTM agreed to pay nearly $1 million and to change its business practices to resolve the charge that it is operating a pyramid promotional scheme.

With each passing day, more states are jumping on FHTM’s bandwagon. The alarming rise in consumer complaints and governmental sanctions has prompted the Better Business Bureau of Central and Eastern Kentucky to downgrade FHTM’s rating from “B-” to “F”. At the same time, a proliferation of online bulletin boards and blogs, such as www.complaintsboard.com and www.scams.com criticize FHTM’s pyramid scheme confirms that Isaacs’ experience is not unique. Will those operations be the next target of Fortune’s high price legal team?