YTB Travel Sued For $100 Million In Class Action Lawsuit

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by Ty Tribble in YTB Travel

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I heard that some are heading from YTB over to Fortune Hi Tech. Fortune has a similar compensation plan and has recently been in trouble with an Attorney General, (see previous MLM Blog post), Could this be out of the frying pan and into the fire for YTB associates?

Speaking of YTB. Is this the end?

YTB International faces a new legal challenge with the year-end filing of a class action lawsuit that alleges that YTB has “perpetrated an illegal pyramid scheme that represents one of largest fraud(s) in the history of the State of Illinois and the history of this nation.” The plaintiffs are requesting $ 100 million in actual and punitive damages and was filed U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis Division. The action has once again focused attention on multilevel marketing companies and industry standards.

“The defendant corporations have taken over half a billion dollars from their unsophisticated customers, selling them on the dream of cheap travel and million dollar pay-outs when the only way that Plaintiffs and their class could make a net profit was by recruiting others to join the illegal pyramid scheme,” the plaintiffs argue. “While over half of the its customers received no travel commissions at all, the directors of YTB International, Inc. each paid themselves multi-million dollar salaries while also siphoning tens of millions of dollars from their publicly traded corporation to privately owned corporations that they owned and controlled. Plaintiffs and their proposed class ask this Court to end Defendants’ massive fraud and to enter a judgment that compensates them for the hundreds of millions of dollars that Defendants swindled. Plaintiffs’ claims are typical to those of their proposed class because they arise out of Illinois common law.”

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4 Responses to “YTB Travel Sued For $100 Million In Class Action Lawsuit”

Steve

07. Jan, 2010

I certainly don’t have all of the details on this but I have to believe that many of these types of lawsuits stem from those who are pissed because they failed, decided to quit and now they want to blame it on someone. It’s too bad because it gives the whole industry a black eye. It’s like if I was hired for a sales job where they paid me 100% commission (no hourly or salary) and I agreed to accept that form of compensation when I took the job. Then six months later I haven’t made a sale and decide to quit, if I haven’t already been fired. Then I try to sue my company because they never paid me at least minumum wage for all of the hours I worked! Ridiculous. If you don’t understand the compensation plan and how you get paid, then don’t sign up!

[Reply]
Ty Tribble Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Steve, less than 25% of the revenues in YTB Travel came from actual product (travel). The rest of the revenues came from sign ups. You and I would call that a Pyramid scheme.

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Steve

09. Jan, 2010

Interesting. I didn’t know that. Thanks Ty.

[Reply]
Troy Dooly

09. Jan, 2010

Ty,

by any chance have you received a copy of the lawsuit? I have seen a lot written on this, but have not yet found the actual filing to review.

Great reporting as always.

Living An Epic Adventure,

Troy

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