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University in Beaumont, Texas, now part of the University of
Texas.
In October 1996, petitioners began to operate an Amway
distributorship under the name of Ollett Enterprises. Amway is a
supplier of household and personal use products sold by direct
marketing. Petitioners were recruited into Amway by their so-
called upline sponsors, David and Carole Marzke.1 In the Amway
pyramidal sales structure, petitioners and the Marzkes are
ultimately members of the large network established by Bill
Florence (the Florence organization).
Neither of the petitioners had any sales experience prior to
joining Amway. Petitioners did not write a business plan or
establish a budget and did not consult with any business advisers
other than their Amway uplines concerning techniques for making
their distributorship profitable.
Around late 1999 or early 2000, Amway changed its name to
Alticor Inc., and petitioners became an “independent business
owner” (IBO) of Quixtar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alticor.
Amway’s restructuring had no significant impact on the Federal
1 “Upline” and “downline” refer to a distributor’s position
within the Amway network. Distributors are generally recruited
into Amway by a sponsoring distributor. The sponsoring
distributor is considered the “upline” distributor and his
recruits are “downline”. As downline distributors recruit
additional distributors, those recruits also become members of
the original sponsor’s downline network.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011