According to an article in Court House news:
Two distributors for Market America claim the company’s $7.3 billion valuation comes from millions of people who have lost money after enrolling in the pyramid scheme, including Chinese-Americans whom the company targets to sell products to relatives in Asia.
Chaunjie Yang and Ollie Lan sued Market America and its founders James Howard Ridinger, Loren Ridinger, and president and COO Marc Ashley in a federal class action on Tuesday.
The racketeering lawsuit says that while the executives tell distributors they can earn more than $560,000, only those at the top make that kind of money.
Ninety percent of sellers do not receive a penny, according to the lawsuit.
“According to Market America, the only way to fail under Market America’s business model is to quit. Meanwhile, Market America and its confederate conspirators now assert a business valuation of $7.3 billion that they have made off the backs of millions of people in their pyramid,”
the class claims in the lawsuit.
Yang says he handed over $35,000 to Market America and eventually lost money in the venture. He says in the lawsuit that people enrolling in the scheme have to pay a $399 startup fee and $129 a month.
Market America