Inside Donald Trump’s Relationship with Alleged Pyramid Scheme Company ACN Inc.

In a small apartment in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, I sat with my notepad and watched three hardworking single moms watch a video of Donald Trump. “The Trump name and success have really become one and the same,” he said, looking straight out from the screen, shaking his famous finger. “The two things I’ve mastered over the years is understanding the importance of timing in business and the ability to recognize great opportunities. So, I’m here to tell you about a company that provides these two essential components for success.”

The company was ACN, an investment opportunity that, in his words, is “probably even better than real estate.” He added with a shrug: “I like real estate, but this is probably better.”

Before Trump appeared, the video had shown dollar signs circling the screen, diving into bank accounts to show how that as you build an ACN customer base, and your customers, in turn, bring in even more customers, money will flow your way, as much as $8,000 a month. “Now, imagine if you could have half of that, or even a tenth of that,” the narrator said. “Would you like that?”

From the Salon article: The Donald Trump Scandal He Wants You to Forget

Have you ever heard of ACN Inc.? It’s a North Carolina based “multi-level marketing” company, and alleged pyramid scheme, which Donald Trump has had a relationship with since 2006. If not, it’s time to get up to speed.

This is for all you Trump fans.

From the Daily Caller:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was paid $1.35 million since last May for three speaking engagements for a network marketing company that has been accused of being nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

Trump’s presidential financial disclosure, which was released on Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission, shows that he has been paid $450,000 each for three speeches given on behalf of ACN Inc., a North Carolina-based “multi-level marketing” company. The celebrity and real estate billionaire spoke most recently at ACN’s annual convention which was held in Charlotte in February.

Trump first became involved with ACN in 2006. In 2009 and 2011, company executives appeared on the mogul’s NBC reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice.” During one of those episodes, a video phone ACN was selling was a featured product.

Of the many multi-level marketing companies that exist, ACN is “one of the more predatory and aggressive,” FitzPatrick told The Daily Caller. He said that the company not only charges its agents hefty up-front fees, it also forces them to sign lengthy contracts for products and services that the company sells.

To prop up its business, ACN relies heavily on Trump to recruit news salespeople into the fold. The author of “The Art of the Deal” is featured prominently on the company’s website and speaks regularly at its conventions and training events.

“When evaluating a business opportunity people need to look for strong leadership, a solid track record, success stories, a strong product people need and want and a clear plan for the future. ACN has all of these things,” Trump says in an ACN-produced video.

“ACN has a reputation for success, success that’s really synonymous with the Trump name and other successful names, and you can be a part of it,” the company’s website states.

“With a name like Trump behind it people would think this can’t be a scam,” FitzPatrick says.

But scores of people who have worked for ACN or purchased its products say it is just that.

According to Ethan Vanderbuilt, who operates a popular scam-busting website, the state’s attorney general claimed that in 2008, ACN recruited 91 sales affiliates there. Those participants paid around $62,000 to sign up with the company. All but two made money from the deal, according to Vanderbuilt. He also reported that in 2009 more than 300 representatives paid approximately $235,000 to sign on with ACN. The company paid out only $896.86 to participants.

In case you crave more. Here’s an article written by Joe Miller at Salon:

In a small apartment in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, I sat with my notepad and watched three hardworking single moms watch a video of Donald Trump. “The Trump name and success have really become one and the same,” he said, looking straight out from the screen, shaking his famous finger. “The two things I’ve mastered over the years is understanding the importance of timing in business and the ability to recognize great opportunities. So, I’m here to tell you about a company that provides these two essential components for success.”

The company was ACN, an investment opportunity that, in his words, is “probably even better than real estate.” He added with a shrug: “I like real estate, but this is probably better.”

Before Trump appeared, the video had shown dollar signs circling the screen, diving into bank accounts to show how that as you build an ACN customer base, and your customers, in turn, bring in even more customers, money will flow your way, as much as $8,000 a month. “Now, imagine if you could have half of that, or even a tenth of that,” the narrator said. “Would you like that?”

This was one of the most heartbreaking experiences in my career as a journalist. I was working on an in-depth story about a mixed race church in Kansas City, and one of the ACN affiliates who co-hosted the gathering was a main subject (I’m not naming her or her friends here because my aim is to call out the perpetrator, not the victim). By almost all measures, she was a saintly woman: a leader in the church’s singles ministry, there every Sunday morning and Wednesday night with her four sons, whom she not only raised by herself but homeschooled. To survive, she worked three jobs, not counting ACN, upon which she laid hopes of quitting those other jobs to give every waking minute to her sons, to her brothers and sisters at her church, to herself and to God.

I’d been to two earlier ACN meetings with her, both of which used the Trump video to close the sale. At the first, I was impressed. I had a vague sense that changes in the telecommunications industry had opened new possibilities, so here might be the rare case where “too good to be true” actually is true. But when I later looked into the company, I found scores of lawsuits and regulatory actions against them for running what amounts to a pyramid scheme.

At the second meeting I attended, after they’d shown the Trump video, as the other guests filled out their applications and opened their checkbooks to buy in, I read the fine print on the promotional materials. It referred to a document called the “Contract Agreement,” and I asked to see a copy. The person running the meeting reluctantly dug out of his briefcase a photocopied sheet of paper covered on both sides with even smaller print and handed to me.

It was a tangle of legalese, but the numbers showed that the $8,000 a month mentioned in the video is based on a 10-percent commission that kicks in only when a business associate amasses and maintains an impossibly huge customer base. Before that, it’s below 0.2 percent.

My experience with Trump and ACN occurred nine years ago. The story I was working on, a book project, fell through, and I moved on to other stories, but Trump continued endorsing ACN, giving speeches several times a year at their convention, and even promoting the company – twice – on his TV show.

Now he’s running for president. After he released his financial statements this summer, The Wall Street Journal asked him about the millions he’s made from ACN. Immediately he had nearly all traces of himself removed from their website. “I know nothing about the company,” Trump told the paper. “I’m not familiar with what they do or how they go about doing it, and I make that clear in my speeches.”

Coming from the man who said his name is synonymous with the success and that ACN is synonymous with success that’s synonymous with his name, this is a blatant lie, and the truth behind it reveals something very dark in his character. At best, it shows that he’s for sale. Worse, it betrays an utter disregard for those who would trust him, hardworking Americans who only want a tiny fraction of the prosperity he’s enjoyed. Either way, he’s unfit to lead this nation.

Now watch Trump’s latest appearance at an ACN training event. In 2015.

For related articles, see:

Video of the Day – Donald Trump is Asked About Libertarianism

Rand Paul Op-ed Blasts Donald Trump – Calls Him a “Fake Conservative” and Wannabe “King”

Will Donald Trump Run as a 3rd Party Candidate?

Donald Trump the Demagogue

You’re Fired – Trump Campaign Tweets Photo of Trump’s Head Next to Nazi Soldiers

Meet the Immigrants Building Trump’s International Hotel in Washington D.C.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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