Medifast is abusing the legal system to punish critics of Take Shape For Life
Earlier this year, Medifast (NYSE: MED) filed a $270 million lawsuit against Barry Minkow, me, and several other defendants for what it has alleged are false statements and a conspiracy to damage the stock price of the company. This lawsuit is nothing more than the typical big company suing a critic to shut her up. [...]
Minkow Anti-SLAPP motion filed in Medifast case
The Medifast Inc. litigation over its multi-level marketing division Take Shape For Life (TSFL), and the criticism of it by me, Barry Minkow, Fraud Discovery Institute, William Lobdell, Robert FitzPatrick, and an anonymous message board poster who referred to the company’s board chairman Bradley McDonald as “Pimp Daddy Brad” marches on. About a week ago, [...]
Medifast Lawsuit: Anti-SLAPP motions filed
Anti-SLAPP motions have been filed in the Medifast lawsuit by me and by my co-defendant, Robert FitzPatrick. My motion can be read in its entirety here, and Fitzpatrick’s can be read here. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. It’s basically when a big company tries to shut up a little guy with expensive [...]
A comparison of Medifast and Pre-Paid Legal
This week Barry Minkow and iBusiness Reporting did a comparison of the business models of Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. (NYSE: PPD) and the Take Shape For Life division of Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED). Pre-Paid Legal is being investigated by the SEC, and Barry wondered how the compensation plans of Pre-Paid and TSFL stacked up. The obvious [...]
Medifast changes auditors: Was Barry Minkow right when he criticized former auditors?
Last week, Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED) announced that it changed auditing firms. The company previously used Bagell, Josephs, Levine and Company, and they were criticized for the choice of auditors by Fraud Discovery Institute and Sam Antar. FDI’s criticism was summed up in a press release: Expert’s letter sites possible stock-touting of Medifast (NYSE:MED) stock by [...]
Medifast lawyers continue to lie to the court
The Medifast (NYSE:MED) lawsuit against Barry Minkow, Fraud Discovery Institute, me, Robert FitzPatrick, William Lobdell, and others marches on. Yesterday, the Medifast lawyers filed an amended complaint in the case. The passage of time has not made Medifast or its lawyers more honest, however, as the amended complaint repeats factual inaccuracies (those are called lies [...]
Medifast lawsuit update
A few weeks ago, Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED) sued Barry Minkow, his Fraud Discovery Institute, me, my corporation, William Lobdell (a journalist working with Barry), Robert FitzPatrick (an expert witness on mutli-level marketing and pyramid schemes), and an anonymous message board poster (good luck with that). Medifast sued us for daring to say that their Take [...]
Medifast files lawsuit, Fraud Discovery Institute reopens investigation
On Tuesday, Barry Minkow and the Fraud Discovery Institute issued a press release stating they were ending their investigation of Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED) in order to focus on other companies. One day later, Medifast filed a defamation suit in California against Minkow, FDI, Robert Fitzpatrick, William Lobdell, iBusiness Reporting, me, my company Sequence Inc., and [...]
Fraud Discovery Institute ends investigation of Medifast Inc.
In mid-2009, Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute began investigating Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED), and published several reports on the company and its business model. The company was compared to Your Travel Biz (YTB), a company that was under fire from the authorities for being an alleged pyramid scheme. There were questions about Medifast’s auditors, but [...]
Medifast continues to mislead shareholders
This week multi-level marketing expert Robert Fitzpatrick released his second report in the last year on Medifast (NYSE: MED) and their Take Shape For Life multi-level marketing division. The report highlights how little money the company’s “health coaches” actually earn from selling the products, and makes it clear that the real money (if there is [...]
