In 1986 Herbalife became a publicly traded company via NASDAQ. Independent distributors' personal vehicles could be seen on the street, decorated by decals bearing the mysterious slogan "Lose weight now, ask me how!" In 1996 Herbalife reached $1,000,000,000 in annual sales. In 2000, Hughes died at the age of 44 from an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription sleeping pills. The company has continued to grow after his death.

In 1994. Mark Hughes started the Herbalife Family Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping children. The organization receives donations from Herbalife itself as well as individuals within and outside the company. The Herbalife Family Foundation has donated more than $6.5 million to children's causes worldwide.

In 2003, Michael O. Johnson joined Herbalife as CEO following a 17-year career with The Walt Disney Company, most recently as president of Walt Disney International. On December 16 2004 the company had an initial public offering on the NYSE of 14,500,000 common shares at $14/share. 2004 net sales were reported as $1.3 billion. In April 2005, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with a four-day event attended by 35,000 Herbalife Independent Distributors from around the world. In August 2005, Dr. Steve Henig joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer, responsible for product research and development.

Herbalife's Scientific Advisory Board is chaired by David Heber, M.D. Ph.D, F.A.C.P., F.A.C.N., who is professor of medicine and public health and the founding director of the Center for Human Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at UCLA. According to a 2004 Forbes article, Dr. Heber joined the board at roughly the same time Herbalife made a $3 million donation to establish the Mark Hughes Cellular & Molecular Nutrition Laboratory at the Center for Human Nutrition. Louis J. Ignarro, Ph.D., a Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine, is also a member of Herbalife's Scientific Advisory Board.

Herbalife is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and employs 3500 worldwide. Products are distributed in 62 countries through a network that Herbalife claims contains 1.4 million independent distributors.


Herbalife products:
- weight loss products
- inner nutrition
- outer nutrition - skin care and related products
Examples: Formula 1

Herbalife critism:
Supporters and merchants involved with Herbalife contend that it is a genuine and profitable multi-level marketing business opportunity. Critics of Herbalife contend that it operates much like a Ponzi scheme and that the company does not make enough effort to curb abuses by individual distributors.

Overal rating: 2/5 - MLM system - you will need capital or distribution network to start no matter what the offer says.

Herbalife stories:

Story 1:

YES, HERBALIFE IS A SCAM! Stay away from it! You need to spend $1000 and who the hell are you gonna sell to? You will forever nag your family and friends to buy this stuff. Then you'll see your family avoiding you like the plague. You then will have to try to con more menmbers into joining so you could make money. and you will never do it. You will lose every dime you put into this scam. It is a pyramid - no if-and-buts about it.
Ask these scammers this question: Let me join for free and after I make $10,000, I'll give you back $5000 instead of the $1000. If they were sure you's make the money, they would take a deal. Ask them that and see the scammers run.
Also tell them you's personally like to meet them at their house to discuss business. (So after the scam crashes, you could burn down their house). See if they'll meet you at their home. But these people are so brainwashed they'll do anything to sucker you in.

STAY AWAY FROM HERBALIFE - IT'S SCAM

Paul

Story 2:

I was a Distributor before then eventually a Sponsor. I can't stand both schemes. My sponsor forced me to get my friends/colleagues to signup to keep my standing. I lost some friends since then.

I did it again with NuSkin. Again, another failure.

Masculus

Story 3:

Legitimate companies aren't going to ask you for money just to learn who they are. You can be successful, if you have the money for websites, special phone lines, merchant accounts, etc., which they don't bother to tell you until after you've ordered Herbalife product. This supposed business that your buying a piece of the pie of is a load of crap, they make it seem so easy to make money, they get your hopes up, then you realize you've been dooped.

Trinity Nowak for InvestmentJudge.com