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Vemma
Vemma () Nutrition Company was a privately held multi-level marketing company that sold dietary supplements. The company was shut down in 2015 by the FTC for engaging in deceptive practices and being a pyramid scheme. The company, based in Tempe, Arizona, was founded in 2004 by Benson K., Lauren, and Karen Boreyko. In 2013, the company reported US$221 million in revenue. Most distributors were in their twenties. The company had frequently been accused of being a pyramid scheme by U.S. media, business analysts, and former distributors, and was fined by the Italian government. The Boreykos later formed Bodē Pro in 2017, and merged the legacy Vemma products into the new company in 2018, where they continue to be sold. History Starting in the 1990s, the Boreyko family have been incorporating dozens of companies under the family's control sharing the same address. In 1994, the family founded New Vision International, a nutritional supplement company. The family also owns a limited ...
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Pyramid Scheme
A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members with the promise of payments (or services). As the number of members multiplies, recruiting quickly becomes increasingly difficult until it is impossible, and therefore most of the newer recruits do not make a profit. As such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable. The unsustainable nature of pyramid schemes has led to most countries outlawing them as a form of fraud. Pyramid schemes have existed since at least the mid-to-late 19th century in different guises. Some multi-level marketing plans have been classified as pyramid schemes. Concept and basic models In a pyramid scheme, an organization compels individuals who wish to join to make a payment. In exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every ...
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Truth In Advertising (organization)
TINA.org (TruthinAdvertising.org) is an independent, non-profit, advertising watchdog organization founded in the United States of America. TINA.org was founded in 2012 and received its initial funding from Karen Pritzker and Michael Vlock through their Seedlings Foundation, which supports programs that nourish the physical and mental health of children and families, and fosters an educated and engaged citizenship."A New Connecticut-Based Website Works to Uncover False Advertising"
, Gregory B. Hlady, CT.com, April 3, 2013
TINA.org is headed by Bonnie Patten, who has served as its Executive Director since its founding.


Legal efforts and investigative journalism

On March 28, 2013, TINA.org t ...
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Pyramid Schemes
A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing returns on investments) by sale of legitimate products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members with the promise of payments (or services). As the number of members multiplies, recruiting quickly becomes increasingly difficult until it is impossible, and therefore most of the newer recruits do not make a profit. As such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable. The unsustainable nature of pyramid schemes has led to most countries outlawing them as a form of fraud. Pyramid schemes have existed since at least the mid-to-late 19th century in different guises. Some multi-level marketing plans have been classified as pyramid schemes. Concept and basic models In a pyramid scheme, an organization compels individuals who wish to join to make a payment. In exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every additional member that they recruit. The ...
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Multi-level Marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial and sometimes illegal marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company's products or services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system. In multi-level marketing, the compensation plan usually pays out to participants from two potential revenue streams. The first is based on a sales commission from directly selling the product or service; the second is paid out from commissions based upon the wholesale purchases made by other sellers whom the participant has recruited to also sell product. In the organizational hierarchy of MLM companies, recruited participants (as well as those whom the recruit recruits) are referred to as one's ''downline'' distributors. MLM salespeople are, therefore, expected to sel ...
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Herbalife
Herbalife Nutrition Ltd., also called Herbalife International, Inc. (with a U.S. subsidiary called Herbalife International of America) or simply Herbalife, is an American multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and sells dietary supplements. The company has been alleged to have fraudulently operated a pyramid scheme; under an SEC agreement in 2016 the compensation and other benefits were restructured to include tying distributor rewards to verifiable sales. Some products sold by Herbalife have caused acute hepatitis. The business is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven, with its corporate headquarters located in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded by Mark R. Hughes in 1980, and employs an estimated 9,900 people worldwide. The company operates in 95 countries through a network of approximately 4.5 million independent distributors and members. In October 2022, previous CEO Michael O. Johnson was appointed as Chairman and i ...
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Consumer Protection
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesses from engaging in fraud or specified unfair practices to gain an advantage over competitors or to mislead consumers. They may also provide additional protection for the general public which may be impacted by a product (or its production) even when they are not the direct purchaser or consumer of that product. For example, government regulations may require businesses to disclose detailed information about their products—particularly in areas where public health or safety is an issue, such as with food or automobiles. Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights and to the formation of consumer organizations, which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace and pursue complaints against businesses. Entities ...
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Vitamins
Vitamins are organic molecules (or a set of closely related molecules called vitamers) that are essential to an organism in small quantities for proper metabolic function. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism in sufficient quantities for survival, and therefore must be obtained through the diet. For example, vitamin C can be synthesized by some species but not by others; it is not considered a vitamin in the first instance but is in the second. Most vitamins are not single molecules, but groups of related molecules called vitamers. For example, there are eight vitamers of vitamin E: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. The term ''vitamin'' does not include the three other groups of essential nutrients: minerals, essential fatty acids, and essential amino acids. Major health organizations list thirteen vitamins: * Vitamin A (all-''trans''- retinols, all-''trans''-retinyl-esters, as well as all-''trans''- β-carotene and other provitamin A c ...
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Dietary Mineral
In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element. Some "minerals" are essential for life, but most are not. ''Minerals'' are one of the four groups of essential nutrients; the others are vitamins, essential fatty acids, and essential amino acids. The five major minerals in the human body are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. The remaining minerals are called " trace elements". The generally accepted trace elements are iron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, iodine, selenium, and bromine; there is some evidence that there may be more. The four organogenic elements, namely carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen ( CHON), that comprise roughly 96% of the human body by weight, are usually not considered as minerals (nutrient). In fact, in nutrition, the term "mineral" refers more generally to all the other functional and structural elements found in living organisms. Plants obtain minerals from soil. Animals ingest plants, th ...
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Aloe
''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most widely known species is ''Aloe vera'', or "true aloe". It is called this because it is cultivated as the standard source for assorted pharmaceutical purposes. Other species, such as ''Aloe ferox'', are also cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications. The APG IV system (2016) places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae. Within the subfamily it may be placed in the tribe Aloeae.Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards).Asphodelaceae. ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website''. Retrieved 2016-06-09. In the past, it has been assigned to the family Aloaceae (now included in the Asphodeloidae) or to a broadly Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed family Liliaceae (the lily family). The ...
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Mangosteen
Mangosteen (''Garcinia mangostana''), also known as the purple mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree with edible fruit native to Island Southeast Asia, from the Malay Peninsula to Borneo. It has been cultivated extensively in tropical Asia since ancient times. It is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India and other tropical areas such as Colombia, Puerto Rico and Florida, where the tree has been introduced. The tree grows from tall. The fruit of the mangosteen is sweet and tangy, juicy, somewhat fibrous, with fluid-filled vesicles ( like the flesh of citrus fruits), with an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind ( exocarp) when ripe. In each fruit, the fragrant edible flesh that surrounds each seed is botanically endocarp, i.e., the inner layer of the ovary.Mabberley, D.J. 1997. The plant book: A portable dictionary of the vascular plants. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. The seeds are of similar size and shape to almonds. Genus '' Garcinia'' also cont ...
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Caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness promoting), ergogenic (physical performance-enhancing), or nootropic (cognitive-enhancing) properties. Caffeine acts by blocking the binding of adenosine at a number of adenosine receptor types, inhibiting the centrally depressant effects of adenosine and enhancing the release of acetylcholine. Caffeine has a three-dimensional structure similar to that of adenosine, which allows it to bind and block its receptors. Caffeine also increases Cyclic adenosine monophosphate, cyclic AMP levels through nonselective Phosphodiesterase inhibitor, inhibition of phosphodiesterase, increases calcium release from intracellular stores, and Receptor antagonist, antagonizes GABA receptor, GABA receptors, although these mechanisms typically occur at concentrati ...
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