Xocai Founders took a beating in todays Sydney Morning Herald in an article called "Sweet schemes: the great chocolate rip-off"
The article takes them to task for a history of bankruptcies, including $336 million in claims from 25 individuals in their home town of Reno, and references them fleeing creditors from Canada 15 years ago.
While the article does not specifically bash Xocai, it doesn't go easy on MXI Corp founders Jeanette Brooks and Martin Brooks.
The article also claims that the Fair Trade Minister is initiating an investigation into whether Xocai is a pyramid selling operation.
From the article:
Jeanette Brooks' son, Andrew, MXI Corp's executive vice president of sales and marketing, said that several of the 620 Australian distributors were "making six figures" and there are big plans to expand in this country and make it a springboard into Asia.
But Jon Taylor, the Utah-based president of the Consumer Awareness Institute and an adviser to Pyramid Scheme Alert, who has analysed hundreds of similar schemes, warned that recruits were "having to spend money to qualify for commissions and advance in the scheme.
"Everybody that's in these programs is losing money."
A Wollongong University senior lecturer, Kathie Cooper, who teaches forensic accounting, said after studying the Xocai compensation plan, that the fine print reveals that to reap the promised rewards, distributors must recruit more people and sell more chocolate than is feasible.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sweet-schemes-the-great-chocolate-ripoff/2008/08/01/1217097533797.html?page=2