Comment by anilshanbhag | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anilshanbhag | Hacker News Reader

John Oliver discussing Herbalife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI

Bill Ackmann on Herbalife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQc6L4ieMwo

Almost 60% of their distributors were latinos (http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/15/business/la-fi-herba...). The lengthy presentation countering Pershing Square's accusations which contained this fact (http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-48ZAJ9/229776353...). There are countless stories of how these people were exploited in the name of gains.

They are expanding rapidly in international markets. In India, Herbalife has over 40 distribution centers now and over 0.5 million distributors ! They even got a famous sports personalities to advertise for them (http://www.herbalproductkart.com/herbalife-brand-ambassdors).

To do my bit in preventing people from falling for such scams, I asked my friends and mother to share it on their whatsapp groups so that people don't fall prey to such pyramid schemes.

You may not like it, but it is not necessarily a scam. Some of the posts by Bronte capital mentioned in the article

http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2015/06/herbalife-very-lon...

http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2016/07/herbalife-and-end-...

It's unfortunate that you are being downvoted - especially since you are citing John Hempton's excellent work on the topic. It's really worth a read and an interesting counterpoint to Ackman's analysis.

Long story short "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

He's being downvoted because the work is not excellent. Hempton uses Mormon end-of-the-world hoarding as the legitimate excuse for inventory loading.

We must have read it entirely differently.

The second link, which is far briefer, highlights that Hempton has finally found an example of inventory loading by millennial members of the Mormon church. But he regards that as an edge case. So I don't read that as making the point that you seem to be criticizing.

More important though is the first link which is extensive and addresses many of Ackman's claims and includes Hempton's own front line documentation. None of that has to do with defending Herbalife on the grounds of "Mormon end of the world hoarding".

Ahm, are you seriously offering those 'articles' as a serious defense or counter argument?

Yes. Don't understand the airquotes. The blog has over a dozen of extremely well thought out articles, detailed analysis of Herbalife, including the author attending multiple events, getting to know the distributors, etc. in an effort to understand what is going on.

I think you meant to say it's not necessarily illegal. It's a scam in any case because the products don't do what the people buying them are lead to believe they do and the distributor opportunities aren't the oppotunity the people buying into them are lead to believe.

> Almost 60% of their distributors were latinos

Uh. What? Can you clarify your point here?

Did you read the link that they posted immediately after that statement?

> Among the biggest accusations facing the company is that it targets low-income members of minority communities, including Latinos, by making unachievable promises of vast wealth from selling its line of protein powders, vitamins, supplements and beauty products.

> This concept has taken off among Latinos, who are taught at an early age that natural remedies such as herbs and juices are a better option than U.S.-style medicine, said Alexandro Jose Gradilla, chair of the Chicano Studies Department at Cal State Fullerton. That makes Herbalife products popular among immigrants.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com