Right around the time I was leaving the business, I recall Internet Associates (INA), my Amway Motivational Organization (AMO), had begun a transition away from Amvox, Amway’s branded voicemail system to this new system called Genie. From the stage, the Diamond leaders lauded how Genie would revolutionize communication within everyone’s organization, and how it was light-years ahead of Amvox in terms of features and functionality. Little did I know, the Diamonds in INA had an ulterior motive for switching to Genie.

I recently came across the article Situational Ethics on Scott Larsen’s Amquix website. Check out who owned stock in EasyTel, the makers of Genie, in the SEC Filings for the company (emphasis mine in bold):

Common Shares James G. Floor 500,000 Shares 4.78
12/31/99 Common 15,000 CBD Int’l Inc. $ 15,000 PSP FBO Clark C. Broome
02/10/00 Common 15,000 Brad & Cheryl Biegert $ 15,000
03/21/00 Common 16,000 Dan Boettcher $ 40,000
03/30/00 Common 6,000 David Lovett $ 15,000
05/29/00 Common 6,000 Robert H. DuBose III. $ 15,000
05/30/00 Common 6,000 Robert H. DuBose $ 15,000
06/20/00 Common 18,000 James Elliott $ 45,000

These individuals were all Diamonds in INA. Now, check out the compensation EasyTel would provide to INA:

2. Compensation to INA

a. For each INA Downline who activates a Universal Telephone Number, EasyTel shall pay to INA the following:

I The $25 activation fee paid by each INA Downline (or such lesser amount paid should INA request that the activation fee be reduced).

II A $5 per user commission paid each month for each INA Downline with a Universal Telephone Number. The total number of TwentyOne Downline for the payment calculation will be based on the number of TwentyOne Downline who have current Universal Telephone Numbers on the 25th of the month. (I.e. if 1000 TwentyOne Downline are subscribers to the Universal Telephone Number as of the 25th of the month, then INA would receive $5,000 as a commission for that particular month).

III A ten percent (10%) commission on all billable telecommunication usage generated by TwentyOne Downline will be paid each month to INA.

Amvox provided PV and BV based on usage. Since I was not successful at building my Amquix business, I produced very little PV/BV each month via Amvox. For a large Diamondship, however, I would wager that the PV/BV levels generated through Amvox would be of some statistically significant number. By jettisoning Amvox in favor of Genie, INA was deliberately reducing the amount of PV/BV in their Amway businesses.

Did you just do a double-take? Let me repeat that again.

By jettisoning Amvox in favor of Genie, INA was deliberately reducing the amount of PV/BV in their Amway businesses. Fortunately for INA, any Amway bonus losses would be easily recouped through the profit-sharing agreement with EasyTel.

Uh, WTF?!? Can we say conflict of interest?

I attended most of my Major Functions at Arco Arena, which has a capacity of 17,317. Say 10,000 INA IBOs in North America were on Genie. That would generate $50,000/month in user commissions, not to mention an additional 10% on all billable usage fees. That money isn’t being distributed down into the IBO organization. No, it’s going straight into the INA Diamonds’ pockets!

I asked in my previous post on tapes what kind of business the System leaders were in. Were they selling motivation or products? This Genie tale is another example to me that my particular System was not in the business of selling Amway products. No, they were — and might still be — in the business of selling their own products — tapes, books, CDs, websites, and voicemail services — to their downline IBOs. And the IBOs? Were they investing money into their own businesses or the businesses of their upline leaders?

Any way you cut it, the answer is obviously the latter.

Today, I know that several AMOs, such as BWW and WWDB, use a communications package called Kate, short for CommuniKate. I wonder if a similar situation exists between CommuniKate and the BWW and WWDB leaders?