Scam Busting: Speaking out against Amway
Eric Scheibeler was once a highly successful IBO (independent business owner) with Amway. He reached the “Founder’s Emerald” status, which represented the top 1/25th of 1% of the IBO’s. After developing his pyramid for almost ten years, Eric discovered documentation that revealed the fraud behind the company.
Eric thought the fraud was just at the Kingpin level of the organization, to which he had worked so hard to elevate himself. He reported his findings directly to Amway’s President, Dick Devos. Eric thought that DeVos would take action against the distributors who were defrauding so many below them.
What happened next was unbelievable. Fellow distributors turned on Eric, and he lost his entire income. His upline offered to buy his network and his silence for $75,000. He refused the offer and began an in-depth investigation that culminated in the writing of the book Merchants of Deception.
Thousands of hours of research went into the book, and Eric gathered documentation from around the world. The book became a roadmap for an FBI investigation, as well as a tool used by Dateline NBC for their expose’ on Amway. Merchants of Deception documents “… that Amway’s billionaire founder and senior management not only were aware of two decades of systematic fraud, but that they aided, abetted and financially rewarded the most egregious offenders.”
The book discusses the government corruption that Eric believes allowed the fraud to continue for years. It also details the actions taken again Eric and his family, from the legal battles to the intimidation and death threats. Who would have thought the exposing of a scam could lead to this? Yet it appears that so much money was on the line for so many, that they were willing to go to great lengths to silence Eric Scheibeler.
