YTB is being sued by the Illinois AG. Read the whole story in The Telegraph…
Here's an excerpt:
YTB, its founder and others are being sued by the Illinois Attorney
General's Office, accusing the Web-based travel marketing company
executives of unfairly profiting at the expense of recruits and others.
The office of Lisa Madigan filed suit in Champaign County Circuit
Court on Thursday, seeking to enjoin the Wood River-based firm and its
subsidiaries from doing business in Illinois. The suit accuses the
company of employing pyramid scheme practices. The document uses some
of the same legal theories that were the basis of the case just settled
in California.
The suit names as defendants YTB International Inc,
Yourtravelbiz.com Inc., YTB Travel Network of Illinois Inc., Board
Chairman and founder J. Lloyd Tomer, his son Scott Tomer, who is
director and chief executive officer, and J. Kim Sorenson, vice
chairman, president and director of YTB International.
The company did not respond to emailed requests for comment from The Telegraph.
The suit was brought pursuant to Madigan's authority to enforce the
state's Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act and challenges YTB's
methods of recruiting "referring travel agents," then paying the agents
in such manner that they seldom made back their initial $500 investment.
The suit goes into detail about the financial remuneration for
agents and others involved lower in the YTB ranks, comparing what they
made to the salaries of the YTB bosses, which grew at an enormous rate
in the past two years.
In 2007, the suit points out, the average active referring travel
agent earned only $8.91 a month for an average annual income of $114.
Read more…
Attention Attorney General Madigan — take them down, show them no mercy. No mercy as they showed none to those that invested in the business. I empathize with those that were swindled by YTB. It is scam-artists like YTB that give MLM's an overall bad reputation. Shame on you: J. Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, and J. Kim Sorenson. Shame on You.
YTB can't catch a break. They settle in CA and then Illinois takes their shot. Sure the company made promises that could never be delivered.
YTB getting raked over the coals is a good thing and a bad thing. Good that a problematic company is going to be taken out of circulation. Bad that there are thousands of honest people who are going to lose when YTB finally goes down.
On the bright side there are other opportunities that people can actually be a winner with.