Full disclosure. I am strongly prejudiced toward this book - favorably. I participated in some of the events described in the book as the author, Joseph Isaacs, began blowing the whistle on the multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, Fortune High Tech Marketing. This business is now accused by the Federal Trade Commission and several states of operating an enormous pyramid scheme. As an expert in pyramid schemes, I conferred with the regulators in Montana, a state that prosecuted the FHTM scheme long before the federal regulators woke up to it. As president of the non-profit consumer education group, Pyramid Scheme Alert, I was quoted in the media explaining how the FHTM pyramid scheme operated and its financially devastating consequences. And, when Joe Isaacs was sued by the scheme, I wrote a "friend of the court" brief in his defense which was made part of the court record.
Yet, even if I had not been directly involved, I would offer the same 5-Star rating. This book is a very important contribution to a body of work that unflinchingly tells the terrible truth about multi-level marketing - that it is a massive Main Street swindle; that it is politically protected from law enforcement, and that it engages in a relentless fleecing of millions of Americans hoping to realize the American Dream.
Fortune High Tech Marketing is the perfect illustration of this sad and disturbing reality. It swept into cities, attracting high powered business and government leaders who then misled thousands of other local people to invest hundreds or thousands in the plan. In Charlotte, NC where I live, FHTM gained the early endorsement of the wife of the former CEO of Bank of America, among other local stars in business and sports. It claimed to be founded and managed by a financial genius with a stellar business history. FHTM was said, with unquestioned authority, to be soundly based on "direct selling" using a legal "multi-level marketing" model. Millions were fooled. For a short time so was the author, Joe Isaacs, and therein is the story.
"Skapegoat" has a message that other books and articles about MLM, including all that I have written, often do not deliver with clarity and emphasis. Isaacs shows how MLM will seek to crush any individual or group that dares to expose it. In this respect, MLM corrupts the free market with its disguised frauds and threatens free speech and democracy with its disinformation, smear campaigns and bogus lawsuits against whistle-blowers. Joe Isaacs, a successful entrepreneur with an uncanny ability to see big picture trends and the personal courage to take risks, did indeed see FHTM for what it was shortly after joining it. He then chose to stand up to FHTM. He paid a high price.
Reflecting his personal business history, Isaacs produced and published his book in a rush of creativity and strong intention for proper timing. He clearly wanted the book to be available during the government's prosecution of FHTM, which is going on right now (2013). "Skapegoat" can be faulted for this hurried production. There are typos and other literary weaknesses. I would urge readers to overlook these faults to gain the benefit of the book's powerful story and its important message.
He recounts the audacity of the FHTM business that did not just engage in, but rather was founded upon, deception. Virtually nothing that was promoted and claimed about Fortune High Tech Marketing was ever true. It was, and it is, all a lie. It used every form of trickery - faux patriotism, false business and executive histories, phony religious affiliation, fraudulent association with major brand names, and false pretenses to "direct selling". Consumers were charged for services that are free in the open market. Products were grossly overpriced. All of these rip-offs sat atop a blantantly fraudulent income promise based upon pyramid recruiting. New recruits were doomed to lose their money while they were being lied to and misled at every turn.
Perhaps the most egregious of all FHTM's deceptions was the company's claim that it upheld higher standards of honesty and integrity than all other businesses. The lies were so grand in scale, in fact, that it was psychologically difficult for a normal person to grasp that anyone would ever propagate them. FHTM exemplified the Big Lie thesis that an enormous deception of great consequence will be accepted by people more readily than smaller, insignificant ones.
The main lie of FHTM was that the company offered millions of consumers a viable, sustainable income opportunity based on residual payments from selling long term services such as phone and internet services. This calculated lie took root during the Great Recession when millions of people were in desperate need of income. In reality, the only money to be made in FHTM came from pyramid recruiting of doomed investors in the fake "business opportunity". The rare profit that could be made was reserved only or a tiny group of perpetrators at the top and it relied upon harming all others.
Isaacs reports how the lies were told; he shockingly describes the characters who perpetrated them and he chronicles the reality of how the government and media accepted FHTM lies, even when the truth began to come out.
Finally, the extreme danger these types of frauds pose is offered in the details of the scapegoating lawsuit this company filed against whistle blower, Joe Isaacs. The suit piled more deceptions upon the business opportunity lies. The suit clearly intended to destroy Isaacs by running up legal costs, smearing his good reputation, and overwhelming his personal life with paper work, responses to motions and the prospect of financial ruin. It succeeded on all fronts - for a time.
The filing of bogus, frivolous, destructive lawsuits against whistle-blowers is a hallmark of the multi-level marketing industry. I myself have been a target. Indeed, every individual in America that has spoken out about the scandal of multi-level marketing has been a target of their lawsuits or government harassment.
Isaacs' personal courage and determination finally prevailed. Several states and the federal government have now concurred with his earliest claims that the company is an illegal pyramid scheme and should be shut down. It is even possible some FHTM executives could go to jail. Sadly, the government allowed the fraud to run for more than 10 years and to swindle more than 500,000 households of hundreds of millions of dollars before it decisively acted.
For those who have grasped the facts about MLM schemes yet are still seeking irrefutable evidence, this book should be read. For those who are investigating MLM and may still believe it might offer a viable income opportunity, this book will save them incalculable time and money.
But, in my personal view, the people, above all others, who should read it are government regulators and politicians. When they hear of complaints or arguments about MLM fraud, yet they are still swayed by company claims of honesty and economic opportunity, this book will open their eyes to the truth of the consumer complaints. If they already suspect MLM is a scam, yet perhaps not so serious to warrant a major investigation, the book will show the extent of damage that such a fraud is doing to the American public. In "Skapegoat", Joe Isaacs is all of us.
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