This friend was so relieved when we told him of the end of our believer status. He told us that he had met Jach many years ago through a mutual friend who was at the time a big MLM Guru.

The story goes that Jach was channeling Lazaris and building his MLM downline simultaneously. The deal was that although Lazaris didn't actually give seminars on MLM or anything, but all the followers were signing up and the rule was that no "friend" could directly recruit another "friend". Anyone who had attended a Lazaris seminar had to sign up directly under "the Unit" Jach, thereby building a nice downline for our good buddy "the channel" and making it harder on "friends" to build their own. I actually think that might have been illegal given what I know about MLM (multi level marketing),assuming it is true.

Anyone familiar with MLM strategy will quickly get it that Jach was using the Lazaris followers to build a get rich quick scam. The MLM company was called Tradevest or something like that, and the deal was that a percentage of the profits made would be invested for the seller, and allegedly would make them big bucks down the line.
The company of course folded quickly as MLMs are known to do, only after making the top few in the hierarchy quite rich and everyone below loses everything. In this case the "associates" loss included their earned profits which were allegedly invested for them.

Some MLM developers deliberately set up their companies to fold at the point where their profits are maxed out. They know that after a point the law of diminished returns sets in. It's all a math game plotted in advance. I have personally been approached by such schemers during my years of working in marketing and product development.

Now, I ask you, didn't Lazaris see all this coming or have anything to say about the ethics of it all?

Also, when we were in Orlando for the Millennium Intensive, we met a guy who swore to us that he was introduced to Lazaris via an MLM seminar in Colorado a few years back. He said that Lazaris was brought in to channel to the MLM group (blue green algae) and that was taken as an endorsement of the company. Michaell North was the man building the downline. We all pooh poohed him and told him he was either full of it, or had his facts wrong.
DUH!!! We were the ones who were full of it.

What a pile of crap we have all been sitting on.

For those who don't know, Multi-Level-Marketing is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American public. If I have been able to uncover and evaluate the economic implications of most of these schems, surely Lazaris would be aware also.
The average multi-level marketer makes something like 60.00 per year. That's the average, which accounts for the small few who make millions. That means that most people lose big money.

Thought some of you might be interested in those bits of hearsay.

We had already heard bits and pieces of this, but our buddy had more first hand info, and may be coming up with more. This conversation was not the focus of our dinner chat, we were there to have a good time and relax.

More to come though. Remember, this is all hearsay, and offered for your consideration as such.

Katie

Thanks for the great welcome! You guys are so alive. If there is one thing that crushed most inside about the Concept:Synergy chat room is the stamping out of strong, expressed individuality and "non-canned" aliveness.

Well, where to begin?

Tradevest was the name of the Concept:Synergy MLM. It was introduced immediately after several Lazaris seminars in San Francisco -- to all those in attendance at the seminars who chose to stay and listen (there was also a flier advertising an "amazing opportunity to work even more closely with Lazaris, Jach, and Peny" mailed to all of us weeks before the first MLM meeting.

The concept was this: buy all the consumer products, travel, and automotive leases you normally purchase, but buy them through the Tradevest Products Catalog national wherehouse (like the old Best Products company or Consumers Distributing -- but without the 'brick and morter' local stores) and a small percentage of your purchase will go toward an anuity that you can cash in -- in 20 years. This "amount" was alleged to come from a portion of the "great savings" realized by not having brick and morter stores. Sound "Dot Bomb" familiar?

IMO -- it was an unspoken: manipulative yuppie public image competitive consumerist shark feed. And yes, Peny was the classic tacky "dress for success" Animal Farm "four legs". The thought of it now just sickens me absolutely.

When it all fell appart, we who invested hundreds of dollars to become Lazaris "metaphysically trained Tradevest associates" were told that a Tradevest board member had abscanded with "all the money" and all bets -- existing annuities and all -- were off!

This after Jach and Peny, week after week had paraded infront of we, many Lazaris Tradevest seminar "trainees" how much money they were making -- hand over fist -- and all the great new luxury items they *now* could afford and were buying through (you guessed it-) Tradevest.

I thank God I only lost $185 dollars (plus God only knows how I much spent on Lazaris Tradevest Success "Seminars" --) and gave up when none of my "conventionally" successful peers --and more wise elders... in the non-New Age prosperity cult world would let me 'Amway assault' them.

My friend Vince, who works for the Fed Board of Governors, told me after a Tradevest "guest event" meeting that the whole thing was misguided and financially dangerous. I should have listened.

As far as I am aware, Peny, Michael, and Jach never refunded a cent of money lost by we "Lazaris Tradevest Seminar" trainees. Instead, Peny went silent, changed her name from Peny Prestini to Peny North (Michael Prestini changed his to Michael North). They then moved Concept:Synergy completely out of the Bay Area to Beverly Hills and eventually to Florida -- Tradevest's original "corporate home".

**********

Katie, the Compuserve Lazaris chat room was set on fire several times with former Tradevest "trainees" raising the subject and being absolutlely spiritually gang beaten. At that time there was one particular far right wing, "expert" blowhard male member in the Compuserve chat room who seemed to be a huge 'fire stoke' for Penny's radical / overnight far-right wing political 'flip flop' from publicly-avowed: "very liberal (likely related to her socially abominable and financially conscienceless behavior with and following Tradevest).

Look at any mean, rich (hey - I love inspirational wealthy people, but -- !) far right wing blowhard and you'll likely find a trail of human wreckage behind them that they're attempting to blot out with tremendous hate think -- and social bluster.

At one point, Peny posted in the Compuserve Lazaris chatroom her sincere hope that President Clinton would get "a fatal STD" as a result of his unconventional sexual behavior. I mean, my God.

I sense that the woman may indeed self-destruct physiologicly. To be frank -- she appears, by all rational and metaphysical measure to have long left the relm of remorse for (and consequent, potential consequent reversal of -) her drive to bloody people spiritually in the present lifetime.

Inside, yes -- we are all the same. You, me, Mousalini, Miloslavitch, Peny. The outer, worldly manifestation, however... .

There is just cause for public exposure and discipline here -- not punishment.

********

And Katie, my closest frind (also an ex Lazaris hot head... :0) caries more than the standard actuarial amount of body weight. However, she exercises aerobicly, daily and eats a great healthy diet. In fact, I saw this guy on TV last week who does Ironman triathalons and looks overweight. It turns out that he wins triathalons! Apparently, we all have a genetic perfect body weight -- some of us are just destin by nature to cary more body mass than others.

Peny, on the other hand, in my personal, up close experience is morbidly obese. This translates into: toxic, acidic blood; resultant low brain oxygenation, and that good 'ole, tried and true resultant human behavior pattern of dominating/*overwhelming*, nasty, thoughtless behavior. Yep -- that's Peny. And I should know very well, I've been there and back.

It goes like this: pollute the blood stream with bad eating and idiotic and/or too little exercise and you don't have to focus on the pain you have generated in your life -- and for others. Because, if your brain cannot focus due to toxic blood / low oxygen -- you loose the ability to thoughtfully feel. One cannot feel with adult maturity without first thoughtfully focussing upon that which one has feelings about.

Which is not to say Peny is numb, lord knows both she and Jach have been known -- by too many now -- to explode thoughtlessly at even the smallest imagined infraction.

*******

And, yes -- it would be so cool to do a get together here in the SF Bay Area Katie! :0) Perhaps a group potluck picnic type thing in a beautiful spot when good Spring weather arrives?

)
Steve

I should have been more specific about the use of sacred geometry to hex Clinton. That happened several years ago, a few months after my "barbeque" (as Katie likes to call the roasting rites) when I looked in on the forum a couple of times before my subsciption fee lapsed. As I recall, people were to place crystals on a grid (forgot the name). The first idea was to program for Clinton's downfall. Then it was changed to protect him because if he were somehow martyred then Gore would get in this year. And then the New Age would be lost even in the face of many manifesting mists, and snappy 33 second techniques. I don't know if people were actually doing this, just that it was discussed.

Unfortunately, along with original good information that attracted us, we have been fed a lot of B.S. For instance the abundance symbol that many of us stuck in our wallets and elsewhere or the above mentioned power grid. How about all the information about crystals. There is some barebones truth to it that people who were already working with crystals were aware of. Then we were told (in the videos) that the Great Work would come about through the combination of Map Makers, crystals, and GGATI. That "dew line" stuff. Then they started pushing crystals that were overloaded with specific high falutin' qualities, replete with Siriun, Lemurian and Atlantean heritage that makes rereading some of the crystal emails laughable. Can't you feel the Ancient One Grampa Teacher Merlin Crystal Mystical Other's counsels of grace, courage and mattering vibing you to take out a second mortgage on your house so you can hear it calling "Come Home" from your very own bedside table? I've seen plenty of crystal exploitation but this is a beaut. And it it takes half the joy out of working with a crystal because it's already packaged with a bunch of labels. I think there is B.S all through the Lazaris Material. So much embellishment disguised as "complexity."

I'm understanding the dynamic that occured within me to keep on trying to grow using the tapes. I accepted a particular reality-set (the whole Lazaris scenario) and managed to ignore or diminish what most of what didn't fit rather unconsciously. And when meditations or techniques didn't work well for me, then I felt it was my fault, not the information. Happily all that diving and breaching in the pools of abundance, value and freedom worked well enough to send me on a Lazaris search, and voila this site appeared. Just what I needed to help me resolve the forum hell I had experienced, and more. I feel like I just awakened from a trance or a dream. Hope all this helps you answer some questions you are bound to be asking yourself.

The concept was this: buy all the consumer products, travel, and automotive leases you normally purchase, but buy them through the Tradevest Products Catalog national wherehouse (like the old Best Products company or Consumers Distributing -- but without the 'brick and morter' local stores) and a small percentage of your purchase will go toward an anuity that you can cash in -- in 20 years. This "amount" was alleged to come from a portion of the "great savings" realized by not having brick and morter stores. Sound "Dot Bomb" familiar?

IMO -- it was an unspoken: manipulative yuppie public image competitive consumerist shark feed. And yes, Peny was the classic tacky "dress for success" Animal Farm "four legs". The thought of it now just sickens me.

When it all fell appart, we who invested hundreds of dollars to become Lazaris "metaphysically trained Tradevest associates" were told that a "Tradevest company board member" had abscanded with "all the money" and all bets -- including existing annuities and all -- were off!

This after Jach and Peny had paraded infront of we -- many Lazaris Tradevest Success Seminar "trainees", week-after-week: how much money they were making -- hand over fist -- and all the great, new extra luxury items they could now afford__ and were buying through (you guessed it --) Tradevest.

I thank God I only lost $185 dollars (plus God knows how much spent on Lazaris Tradevest Success "Seminars" --) and gave up when none of my "conventionally" successful peers -- and more wise Marin elders... would let me 'Amway cult' assault them.

My friend Vince, who works for the Fed told me after an early Tradevest "guest event" that the whole thing was misguided and financially dangerous. I should have listened!

As far as I know: Peny, Michael, and Jach have never seen fit to refund a cent of money lost to Tradevest by we "Lazaris Tradevest Seminar" *paying* trainees. Instead, Peny went silent, changed her name from Peny Prestini to Peny North (Michael Prestini changed his to Michael North). They then moved Concept:Synergy completely out of the San Francisco Bay Area to Beverly Hills and, eventually: to Florida -- Tradevest's original "corporate home".

**********

Katie, the Compuserve Lazaris chat room was set on fire several times with former Tradevest "trainees" raising the subject and being absolutely cult gang beaten -- and socially raped.

At that time there was one particular far right wing, "expert" blowhard male member in the Compuserve chat room who seemed to be a real 'fire stoke' for Penny's radical / overnight far-right wing political "flip": from publicly-avowed: "very liberal" (this likely precipitating from her abominable and financially conscienceless behavior with -- and following Tradevest).

Look at any cruel rich (hey -- who in their right capitalist mind doesn't admire inspirational wealthy folks, but -- !) far right wing blowhard and you'll likely find a trail of human and financial wreckage left behind, that they're attempting to blot-out with tremendous hate think and crude social bluster.

Steve

[Did anyone bring any legal action against Jach and Peny around the Tradvest thing for fraud? Were there ever any legal grounds to hold them accountable around this?

What I am most curious about is whether or not anyone can say if they made money off the deal, sounds like they did.]

Yes. I can tell you with *absolute certainty* that: Jach, Peny, and Michael made SIGNIFICANT money by CON-vincing we Lazaris lemmings to sign-on as Tradevest, Inc. Associates.

How much? I do not know a figure.

It was enough -- however, for Jach to stand-up infront of we 'Tradevest Lazaris special metaphysical success evening/weekend workshop' trainees, before going into trance -- and say words to the effect: "(Due to the money we are _now_ making -- as larger and larger checks arrive in our mailbox from Tradevest Corporate headquarters; we can presently afford to 'upgrade' what we own -- to 'X, Y, and Z' durable luxury consumer goods)". These purchased through Tradevest, Inc. -- of course.

Legal action taken against these Orwellian Blue Ribbon Prize-Winning 'four legs' moves -- for Tradevest -- yet?

To my knowledge, no.

Hey. I'm down: a total of $185 Tradevest Associate Starter Kit cost AND several admitedly 'multiple-purpose' Lazaris Tradevest metaphysical success weekend / evening workshop fees.

My personal legal thermonuclear button was not pushed hard enough by a company that continued to by my prime source of richly valuable, and: *deeply flawed* personal growth material for nearly a decade AFTER Tradevest's toxic colapse.

What about the poor s.o.b's who lost multiple Tradevest 20 Year Annuitiues -- and far larger personal scratch than my sucker $185?!

Did they take action -- legal, or otherwise -- against Jach, Peny, and Michael -- or Tradevest, Inc. itself?

I don't know bro.

**********************

What I do know is that Peny said she wanted Tradevest to be a way for people to "catch up" with her financially and material success-wise.

Damn it. I believe her.

And I believe we we were all porked up the coal mine by a socially toxic corporation once known as Tradevest.

Some of us just came out of the train wreck financially A WHOLE LOT better off than others, for the experience.

And some of us left Marin, and changed our names.

One of us is an Enneagram 6, that at that precise point in time began a fateful disintegration into Enneagram 3: "The Status Seeker" -- self-assured, competitive, narcissistic, hostle.

Come back to us Peny -- your Peacemaker is missed. And needed -- here - now in all of this outrage.

Steve

1) When Tradevest fell apart due to what was said by Concept:Synergy to have been a massive pilfering of funds by a member of Tradevest's board of directors; I wrote Peny Prestini (now: "North") a letter expressing my outrage at: her, Jach Purcel, and Michael Prestini for having brought myself -- and so many other spiritually vulnerable people -- into such a totally disasterous business opportunity.

A rather... short time later, I received a *10pm* phone call, at my home from Jach Purcel. He explained to me, in absolute and no-uncertain-terms that it was: "(I who was angry at myself for having consciously created the whole of Tradevest failing in my personal reality)". He then proceeded to demand a direct and personal apology.

Being a rather -- very -- nieve 24 year-old "friend of Lazaris", I allowed myself to be totally bowled over by Jach's angry, demanding -- and indeed: rather socially unusual... late night phone call.

Not only did I appologize and, for the momment completely swollow his claim of deep, psychic awareness of my private mental reality -- the very next day I ACTUALLY sent he, Peny, and Michael FLOWERS 8=(P) for the "awful trouble" I had brought them with my letter expressing outrage about Tradevest taking my -- and everyone else's -- #^%@ money!

Can you say: socially spineless, cver-vulnerable, 24 year-old PUTZ?

I still get so damned angry every time I have reason to recall the whole filthy, humiliating story.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremiah:
My understanding is there is a world of difference between a tradevest customer and a
tradevest "sales associate"..

---

I did an Internet search and found these three articles that talk about Tradevest:

http://www.inc.com/incmagazine/article/1,3654,ART3395_PAG2,00.html
"Spend and Save", Inc. magazine, 2/1/93
A fellow named Andreini bailed out of Tradevest 4 months before it filed bankrupcy. Andreini used the same principles to start a company called START. I don't know what ever happened to START.

http://www.money.com/money/archive/magarticle/0,4015,4434,00.html
"The Mess called Multi-Level Marketing with Celebrities Setting the Bait...", Money magazine, 6/1/87
A review of MLM schemes, including Tradevest. (Search the article for Tradevest because its 5 paragraphs are toward the bottom.)

http://www.money.com/money/archive/magarticle/0,4015,4527,00.html
Reader mail response to the "Mess" article by the president of Tradevest, Money magazine, 8/1/87

The Mess article says "A Tradevest customer pays $839 and an annual $39 service fee." The president's mail says "there is no fee for signing up as an associate."

So Jeremiah, your understanding seems to be correct -- a world of difference between customer and associate! (altho the reverse of what I would have guessed)

Nothing new to report about TradeVest, but I found something interesting about why MLMs would appeal to those on a spiritual quest. This is an exerpt from a "conversation with Robert Fitzpatrick" (author of a book about MLM scheming), in Nexus, Colorado's Holistic Journal (Jan/Feb 1999)

quote:

---

Quoted from http://www.nexuspub.com/jan99/mlm1.htm (with permission even!)

NEXUS: What is particularly appealing about MLMs to people who are interested in holistic consciousness and new spirituality?

RF: Multi-level marketing has utilized the faith and the beliefs that would today be called New Age tenets or beliefs. And by those I mean beliefs that are based upon personal empowerment, a sense of a divine purpose, of a benevolent deity, for example. Companies are espousing the concept of a universe in which prosperity and wealth and good health are intended for everyone. So this is a benevolent universe, a benevolent deity. They teach that each individual can achieve these ends through spiritual methods. So the concept of succeeding in this business is presented in many meetings as a spiritual exercise, that it depends first upon your orientation, your attitude, an opening to allow prosperity and success to enter your life. When that happens, success will flow, companies tell recruits. The philosophy and the tenets that are taught coincide closely with the principles that are taught in many new age communities or new thought churches, such as Unity or Church of Religious Science. It is a system that reality can be formed by your attitude, that you can shift reality by changing yourself. That what's intended in life is for you to be successful, happy and healthy. That poverty or illness is often a sign of resistance to the divine pattern. This is taught all the time in multi-level marketing.

---

By golly by gum.

Susan

I signed up for the online Wall Street Journal (WSJ) because they have archives available that go back 20 years. Some interesting reading indeed. I can't quote or reprint, but I can relay the gist for noncommercial purposes.

First: No less than ten major newspapers across the country carried the story of the sale of a 27,000 sq.ft. Palm Beach home on the ocean in mid-December 1991. The house had been on the market ever since it was built in 1988, but the Norths snatched it up in three weeks for a cool $9 million. Their old Palm Beach home, only 13,000 sq.ft., was going to go on the market for almost $7 million. One Dick Allison handled the sale. Hmmm...any relation to the other Allison whose first/last name may have been switched over the years? I don't know how big the lot was, but it included a 3-BR guest house, 14-car garage, and a tennis court.

And now Tradevest: I have five non-WSJ articles that discuss Tradevest. The first two, written in January 1986 in the Atlanta Journal, talk about Tradevest and its investment value; the company was formed in October 1985. The last three, written in July/August 1986 in the LA Times and a Baton Rouge publication, discuss a $1 million consumer protection suit against the company, filed exactly 15 years ago today (7/14/86) by the California Attorney General's office. (BTW, the gift theme for a 15-year anniversary is -- ready? -- crystal!)

Tradevest was accused of being a pyramid scheme, of misrepresenting the profits that could be made, of violating numerous consumer protection laws, and at least two lies told to Tradevest members by the promotors:

•  Merrill Lynch managed the trust fund (Lie)

•  Coopers & Lybrand audited the fund to make sure there'd be enough money in 20 years to pay everybody (Lie; a subsequent State of CA analysis said there wouldn't be enough $$ unless 1.5 billion people participated)

A settlement was made August 20, 1986. Tradevest could continue operating but it was to offer refunds to dissatisfied members, pay $60,000 in civil penalties & legal costs, revamp its sales program, and place the funds in protected trust accounts. Tradevest did not admit any wrongdoing (egad--not that).

There were no WSJ search results that covered the demise of Tradevest. Frank Russo says (in What About the Good) that he spent money on Tradevest goods between 4/10/87 and 6/12/87, so the outfit might have lasted only a year after the lawsuit, and apparently with changes, since Steve said (in Tradevest that he invested only $185 + seminars. The January 1986 articles I read said the fee to join was $2000, with $29 annual renewal (and you'd have to spend $100,000/year for 20 years to make up the loss in compound interest had the $2000 been invested in something sensible like an IRA for 20 years). In August 1986, even before the settlement, the articles said the fee to join was $789 + $39 annually.

Oh...and that pool that Michaell last lounged by? All marble, the only thing left from an estate that previously occupied the site.

Susan