Amway: The Untold Story

Not content, apparently, with publicly embarassing themselves with their previous false statements about me, Amway has yet again cranked up the manure spreader in a renewed attempt to bury the fact of their own misconduct. Here is my response to their revised statements about me on their web site. If you haven't already read their original statement and my response, I suggest you do that first.

Most of the changes made to Amway's statement are too minor to bother with; I'll address just the significant ones.

Amway's statements are in italics.

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The truth is that Mr. Schwartz, despite his trumpeted support of free speech, only believes in speech that he controls.

This must be why a) I had on my site, and still have, a link to Amway's site, including their nasty and vindictive misstatements about me, and b) I published on my site pro-Amway as well as anti-Amway comments. Amway has never made a similar attempt to provide a balance of information to its distributors. Amway is obviously more "controling" of free speech than I am and thus, according to its own professed standards, less of a supporter of free speech than I am.

He refuses to support Amway's efforts to have the seal removed from his deposition in the P&G case so that Mr. Schwartz's sworn testimony would be publicly available.

This statement only reveals Amway's pathetic desperation to find something, anything to hang on me. Here is what Amway, in bending the truth until it screams for mercy, "forgot" to tell you:

1. Neither I, my attorney, nor P&G's attorneys ever asked the court to seal my deposition. The judge in Oregon decided entirely on his own to do this. There was no attempt on my part to keep my testimony secret, as Amway has falsely and malicious implied.
2. Amway has twice now filed motions in the Utah court to have this deposition unsealed. Both times they have sought not only to be allowed to make the transcript public, but also to be allowed access to information that two judges have already ruled they are not entitled to have, and they wish to use this information for improper purposes that have nothing to do with the underlying case. Amway is not, as it falsely implies, simply attempting to make public the transcript of my deposition. It is Amway's further attempts to harass me and others, and not the unsealing of the transcript, that I object to (as I have a perfect legal right to do). The letter from my attorney to the Utah court clearly states our position.

   Amway's own words are an admission that they know full well that I have not tried to prevent them from making my testimony available to the public. Notice that Amway states "He refuses to support Amway's efforts…", and not "He opposes Amway's efforts…". Amway knows it would be a blatant lie to state that I'm opposing their efforts but, unable to pass up a chance to say something nasty about me anyway, they instead make the ludicrous assertion that I should actually be assisting the opposing party in a legal dispute in which I'm involved! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.

3. Contrary to what Amway is trying to imply, it is hardly within my power to unseal the transcript of the deposition. Procter & Gamble is also involved in this case, and they have a right to object (and have) even if I did not. And even if neither P&G or I objected, the judge in Utah could still decide for his own reasons not to unseal the deposition, just as the judge in Oregon decided for his own reasons to seal it in the first place. Amway falsely and maliciously implies that I am the only impediment to them making the transcript public.

Amway continues to show great restraint in our dealings with Mr. Schwartz - even at the expense of further criticism from Mr. Schwartz. We do this because we do believe in free speech.

Free speech is something that anyone can pay lip service to, and of course one would not expect Amway (or anyone else) to publicly come out in opposition to it. However, I've already shown, in my first response to Amway, that Amway is no friend of free speech and in fact has taken extraordinary steps to deprive its distributors of this right.

As for Amway's claim of showing "great restraint," I've likewise already shown that to be highly dubious, considering Amway's vast resources and the enormous number of lawsuits it has been and continues to be involved in.

Amway again urges Mr. Schwartz to meet with representatives of Amway, in a setting and manner of his choosing, to discuss the material he has posted on his web site.

I'm not aware of any concerns I have that I need to discuss with Amway. My only concerns all along have been:

1. That there is a great deal of misinformation and deception surrounding the presentation and implementation of the Amway business opportunity;
2. That Amway has a long history of illegal and unethical activities; and
3. That Amway distributors and the general public are largely unaware of the above.

I feel that I have addressed these concerns to my satisfaction through my web site, and I cannot see how a personal meeting with Amway officers and/or attorneys will further benefit me or Amway's distributors. It is Amway that has failed completely to address these concerns in any meaningful way, and in doing so has allowed its distributors to continue to be victimized. I frankly can't see how a meeting with me is going to change that, and Amway has so far not indicated why they believe it would. The only party that stands to possibly benefit from such a meeting would be Amway.

Mr. Schwartz again urges Amway to put its own house in order and end the abuses that have so grievously harmed so many of its distributors. You would hope that with its own distributors filing lawsuit after lawsuit against it, with high level distributors going so far as to accuse Amway of being a "conspiracy and evil plan" (something even I've never done), that Amway would be so deeply embarassed and ashamed that they would finally stop protecting the abusers and make proper redress to the abused. Maybe it's too late for that. Maybe Amway's last shreds of conscience and decency have shriveled up and died from disuse. Only time will tell.