FTC uses Expert Witness who links MLM model to KKK in case against Jay Noland & Success by Health?

The FTC used Stacie Bosley as an expert witness in the case they have versus Jay Noland & Success by Health. In a February 2020 hearing, both sides started conversations to determine the fate of Jay Noland’s companies, and distributors’ futures. There were many interesting points uncovered and some will be released as they are made available. This is one that was interesting. Links of MLM to KKK model? Is there a racial bias in this case?

Company owner Jay Noland is of “mixed races”, visibly “black” is one of them.

Stacie Bosley published an article using links of the mlm business model to that of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan).

Then used words like “intrigued” stating that people are interested in this type of comparison. You can read through this and wonder:

here are excerpts from the transcript of cross examination of Stacie Bosley:

Q. = Mr Silver (Jay Noland Successby Health Attorney)

A. = Stacie Bosley
THE WITNESS = = Stacie Bosley

MR. MENDELSON: FTC Attorney

Q. This isn’t the first time you’ve served as an expert for the FTC against a multilevel marketing company, is it?
A. It is not.
Q. You testified in the Vemma case here in Arizona?
A. I did.
Q. You’ve also prepared expert reports in civil cases, one against a company called, I think it’s pronounced Jeunesse.
A. Jeunesse.
Q. Jeunesse. And that was a civil case, not an FTC case, but Jeunesse was still a multilevel marketing company?
A. That’s correct.
Q. And you published articles about the dangers of multilevel marketing companies?
A. I published articles about regulatory concerns regarding multilevel marketing companies.
Q. And you’ve produced videos about multilevel marketing companies? A. Could you explain what you mean by videos?
Q. I’m referring specifically to your TED-Ed talk. A. So the TED-Ed talk is specifically about how to spot a pyramid scheme, which includes the discussion of the potential overlap with multilevel marketing.
Q. All right. You — you teach — you lecture at Hamline
University?
A. I’m an associate professor, yes, and I teach courses.
Q. You teach courses. You lecture?
A. Yes. In the modern era we try not to lecture as much.
Q. Okay. You’ve been interviewed by Hamline University as an Ask the Expert?
A. I have.
Q. In your Ask the Expert interview you were talking about the warning signs of pyramid schemes.

A. I believe so. That was some time ago. Q. It was some time ago. A. Um-hum.
Q. Does that look like the article?
A. Absolutely.
Q. And in that Ask the Expert — MR. MENDELSON: I’m sorry to interrupt, Your Honor. If I could just have a copy of the document that counsel’s referring to. MR. SILVER: Do we have a copy? I’m not offering it as an exhibit. I’m just asking her questions. MR. MENDELSON: If there’s a copy, I’d still like to have it so I could ask questions if appropriate. MR. SILVER: I’ll give you this one. MR. MENDELSON: Okay.

: Q. This was your Ask the Expert article, and I assume it’s someone named Julie Carroll posed some questions to you and you wrote the responses?

A. That’s correct. I responded to her questions.

Q. And I just — in this there’s a comparison that — a comparison of multi — modern multilevel marketing organizations with how the Klu Klux Klan works?

A. So that is not my paper, that was a paper by —

Q. But it’s in your article.

A. I reference how a particular paper — and, in fact, one of the only ones that’s been published that references a pyramid scheme structure happened to be from an article by Steven Levitt and Roland Fryer who modeled the recruitment rewards in the Ku Klux Klan. In no way was that intended as an actual comparison of the operations of the Ku Klux Klan in any — in any concrete sense with modern multilevel marketing.

Q. Okay. So in this basically two-page article where they’ve asked you about eight questions, and you published this through your university, one of the questions just happened to be about the Ku Klux Klan?

A. So people are sometimes intrigued by the fact that this paper, which I did not write, by Roland and Fryer, speaks to and actually models a multilevel marketing structure where the theoretical model, which I can go into if you like, has a two-stage element to it. It has a join decision and it has an ongoing decision to stay in the organization. And so people are often intrigued by how a Ku Klux Klan article would come to talk about multilevel marketing. Q. And yours does. Your article does —

A. Sure –

Q. — it talks about —

THE COURT: Just a moment.

THE WITNESS: Sure. People ask me that question because they find it intriguing.

MR. SILVER: Okay.

THE WITNESS: It is not part of my research. It came up as part of the interview because people find that sort of a curiosity.

BY MR. SILVER:

Q. So you weren’t making that comparison and you weren’t making that allegation, it’s just in your article?

A. Certainly. It was — it came up as a topic of conversation because this particular paper talks about recruitment rewards and models a multilevel marketing structure within their paper.