Do you know who you’re doing business with? What’s the real story behind Shop To Earn and Shop To Earth? Why does this background information look so sketchy? Here’s what a reader of this blog found…

I’ve been approached over the past couple of months about shoptoearn, primarily by people in the real estate industry.

So I did a little research and was somewhat horrified at what I learned. I’m sharing the results with you in the hope that you will find it useful sometime to share with your readers and perhaps help some avoid shattered hopes and destroyed relationships.

Last week, Sam Antar exposed yet another set of accounting manipulations by Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) and CEO Patrick Byrne. Those who have carefully followed the Overstock saga are no doubt unsurprised at company’s use of a little accounting “presto chango” to make the fourth quarter of 2008 look better.

Had the company reported its financials properly for the year, the fourth quarter would have shown a loss of $800,000. With this bit of accounting magic, Overstock.com instead reports a profit of $1 million.

The reader wrote this after attending a MonaVie meeting and researching the company online:

[xxx] invited me to a meeting he had at his house last night. Most of the people there were members of the church. All of the attendees were distributors except for me. I told [xxx] you gave me a bottle and it actually tasted good and when I was drinking it consistently, it made me feel good. The cost is too expensive. I’ve never been a big fan of MLM business models. I was once an Amway distributor way back until they weren’t consistent with paying me hard earned commissions or numbers were wrong.

Originally posted on WalletPop…

Several banks are getting their fair share of negative publicity for engaging in questionable spending after accepting bailout money (compliments of the taxpayers). The bailout money was theoretically meant to help financial institutions stay in business and to help loosen up tight credit markets. But time and again, we’re seeing the banks doing “business as usual” in spite of the welfare dollars they’ve received.