One need not only be good; but
has to be in good company too… this is nothing on IPL or on match-fixing
Head of this Italian businessman - Carlo
Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi !
Even the most intelligent and thoughtful sometimes slip and fall….a few
years ago, somebody promoted scheme wherein you put money, then enroll friends
under you – the friends enroll more people and money would keep flowing …. A
chain scheme and you get introductory gifts and many more….. me, though not
averse to indulging in forms of gambling still was not attracted – some of my
friends did and………………………………….
You sure know this ~ perhaps
directly – knowing, buying or even selling its products… ‘Amway’ - (short for
American Way
), an
American multinational direct-selling company that sells a variety of products,
primarily in the health, beauty, and home care markets to consumers and
independent business owners. mway was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and
Richard DeVos. Based in
Ada
,
Michigan
. Amway conducts business
through a number of affiliated companies in more than a hundred countries and
territories around the world. Many believe that Amway products are good quality
though somewhat expensive.
Amway has no shops; you would not
find its products in Supermarkets ~ but
sells through MLM. Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which
the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but
also for the sales of the other salespeople that they recruit. This recruited
sales force is referred to as the participant's "downline", and can
provide multiple levels of compensation.
It is also known as ‘pyramid selling’. Most commonly, the salespeople
are expected to sell products directly to consumers by means of relationship
referrals and word of mouth marketing.
In West Bengal there is news of
another death…… 18th since the Saradha Group meltdown in
West
Bengal
. Reports state that Swapan Majumdar (42) hanged himself
from the iron railing of the terrace of his two-storeyed house at Belghoria in
the northern suburbs of Kolkata around Saturday midnight. Majumdar was an agent
of Ramel Group of Industries, a Kolkata-based money marketing company. He had
collected Rs 16-17 lakh from around 65 depositors in the Belghoria-Sodepur
region over three years. Formerly a
private tutor, Majumdar was known as a man of integrity and was implicitly
trusted by depositors, his family said. Despite payment defaults, he didn't
face threats or abuses but was on the edge
when hundreds of the depositors protested in front of the Sodepur office
asking for their money.
From Kerala comes the news that Amway
India CEO, MD is arrested for financial
fraud. First Post quoting
Mathrubumi reports that the Kerala Crime
Branch has arrested Amway India Managing Director and CEO William Scott
Pinckney and two other directors of the network marketing company. Amway has
been accused of selling low- priced products at inflated prices. The arrests
have been made in relation to two cases of fraud registered against the
Pinckney in Wayanad district of Kerala, the report said. He was in Kerala to
secure anticipatory bail in these cases. He has already got a bail in another
case registered against him in
Kozhikode
district.
According to a report in India
Today, Pinckney, Sanjay Malhotra and Anshu Budhraja were questioned earlier
this month and asked to report to the police on Monday, when they were again
interrogated by the Economic Offences Wing and later arrested by the Wayanad
police. Earlier, the Crime Branch had seized products worth Rs 2.5 crore from
various go-downs across the state and arrested the Kerala chief of the company.
After this arrest, the crime branch had decided to probe Amway’s insurance
business, an earlier Mathrubhumi reportsaid.
There were complaints that Amway
had supplied new products to distributors at high price. Lakhs of rupees thus
collected was invested in the insurance business, the report said. A probe into
the multilevel marketing firm found that products that were Rs 37 was sold to
consumers for Rs 395 as MRP. The investigation was conducted after Vishalakshi
from
Kozhikode
complained that she lost Rs 3
lakh on selling Amway products.
Now coming to Ponzi ~ Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment
operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money
paid by subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual
or organization running the operation. The scheme is named after Charles
Ponzi. This Italian businessman became known in the
early 1920s as a swindler in
North America
for
his money making scheme. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45
days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons
in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the
United States
as a form of arbitrage.
With regards –
S.
Sampathkumar
28th May 2013