TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. For more information, visit the listing at bit.ly/2mgnmna. The IRS, which had a $15 million claim, has been awarded a judgment of $9.275 million, but appraisals put the value of the Turner property at $1 million to $2 million. 0000037159 00000 n Mr. Turner's business, osten sibly, is cosmetics, the keystone product in a bizarre conglom erate called Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc. We are forever suspicious, convinced someone else wants to profit at our expense. Mr. Maxa cannot resist quoting H. L. Mencken's observation that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. 0000006496 00000 n He said neither man would be eligible for release from prison before serving at least two-thirds of the sentence. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 23:43. This book may be edifying but, having long believed, considerable evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, that The People Is Not Dumb, I found it depressing. [1] In 1971, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Koscot, charging restraint of trade. Mr. Maxa has missed very little about Turner's operations and the soueces of his appeal. 0000006933 00000 n . Bids on the Castle property will be advertised over the next few weeks to notify any other bidders of the pending sale. 0000041306 00000 n Generally, the product or service is of poor quality, overpriced, or has no purpose other than as a ploy to give the company the appearance of legality. Turner, the son of a sharecropper, told people they. Turner, the son of a sharecropper, told people they could all be rich and successful like him if, that is, they made an investment in his multi-level marketing company. No. Glenn W. Turner, a farmboy who built and lost a multimillion-dollar financial empire with his pyramid sales schemes, lost his freedom Thursday. %%EOF Dropping the creator of Dilbert is free speech at work, Ron DeSantis shows how not to run an education system, False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [1], Pyramid schemes being illegal, Koscot became involved in substantial litigation from government agencies and Koscot's customers. . PHOENIX, ARIZ. Glenn W. Turner, a farmboy who built and lost a multimillion-dollar financial empire with his pyramid sales schemes, lost his freedom Thursday. Yes, the ethos can lead to success, as long as you actually have the goods and the skills. [1] Distributors for Holiday Magic, who took the course, have considered it as a Holiday Magic Business expense. See the article in its original context from. trailer "It is hard for me to believe . "There have been a lot of books written about Mr. Turner," said Barnett Lotstein, the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case. It's easy and secure. [3] Lawyers for Turner and Rector asked Dougherty to let their clients remain free while they appealed their convictions. Private investors also have claims against the property for $200,000 in tax certificates, under which they paid the taxes and earn 18 percent interest until the property is sold and the tax amounts are paid back to them.. Turner and his family havent paid property taxes since 1979, but investors bought tax certificates equal to the back taxes each year. [17] Turner described it as one of the first "pyramid marketing" companies in America. Even as Turner attracted increasingly negative attention in 1972, he was arrested on 86 counts of violating securities laws the phrase gained popularity in a more earnest context within Alcoholics Anonymous. High by today's standards but even more powerful based on the times. 0000008799 00000 n Last month Turner, who turned 53 on Wednesday, and Rector, 57, were convicted on one count of conspiracy, nine counts of fraud, and nine counts of running an illegal pyramid sales scheme. [4], Patrick, a student of Alexander Everett (founder of Mind Dynamics), used Mind Dynamics techniques as well as the Silva Method in the Holiday Magic organization. A few months later, another seller would tell a Florida courtroom that he, too, had been instructed to fake it till you make it. When the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Turners company, a judge cited the phrase as evidence of malfeasance. The $5,000 investment paid for motivational seminars and tapes, but the indictment said the real business of the pyramid operation was to induce more people to invest money to become salespeople who, in turn, were expected to recruit others. that our program was a crime," he said. Koscot and Dare to be Great grew rapidly and Turner became famous. United States District Court, D. Oregon. Glenn Wesley Turner August 19, 1934 - January 8, 2020 Lake Mary, Florida Set a Reminder for the Anniversary of Glenn's Passing Forward to Family & Friends Share a Memory Print Contact Support Upgrade Death Certificates Share This Obituary Make a Memorial Donation Tributes.com partners with over 100 national charities. 0000041122 00000 n Turner, though, had hired a lawyer for his sentencing Thursday. The premise of Koscot was that participants could sell cosmetics door-to-door or at parties. The Glenn Turner court was confronted with the pyramid sales scheme of Dare to Be Great, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc. Ostensibly Dare sold through four "adven-tures" and one "plan" a motivation training course consisting of printed The judge refused and the men were led away to jail by deputy sheriffs after they gave their wallets, watches and jewelry to friends in the courtroom. 0000001769 00000 n [3] An estimated 70 companies (as of 1972)[4] were owned by Turner (owned by Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc.):[1] Dare to Be Great, which sold motivational and self-improvement courses, and also functioned as a multi-level marketing company;[5] Turner had also briefly worked for Holiday Magic, another multi-level marketing company that sold home-care products and cosmetics, and through related companies sold self-improvement programs. 0000008424 00000 n 2/10/75, p. 38) and Bestline . Dougherty also ordered Turner and Rector to pay $44,000 each in fines to be distributed to victims. Theres a difference between psyching yourself up and misrepresenting yourself, and the latter is where fake it has gone too far. The Last Podcast on the Left, a podcast covering topics like serial killers, conspiracy theories, and cults, discussed Holiday Magic on a 2023 episode about David Miscavige. Its inherently manipulative, deceptive, fraudulent, inauthentic, says Robert L. FitzPatrick, co-author of False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. Yet, he adds, its just entered the culture, and its completely normalized.. See the article in its original context from. Glenn W. Turner, who was frequently described himself as a "harelipped sharecropper's son" (leaving some doubt as to which of them was afflicted), built an ephemeral fortune on a pyramid. What happened? Warren., 497 F.2d 687., C.A.Wis. These circumstances have led us into a society that is both more cynical and more predatory, both more receptive to and encouraging of outright fakers. 1973), participants in a pyramid sales scheme were found to be security holders, since they invested their funds in a common scheme dependent for success directly upon the collective sales efforts of the organization. A group of a half-dozen former Challenge participants, who would not give their names, said after the sentencing that Turner and Rector did nothing wrong. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Oaks pleaded guilty last year to one felony count of operating an illegal pyramid scheme and agreed to testify against Turner and Rechtor. Turner was a former sewing machine salesman and son of a South Carolina sharecropper and an unwed mother, born with a cleft palate and a hair lip, who dropped out in the eighth grade, did a short stint in the U.S. Air Force before successfully finishing a school for those who had dropped out of high school. The company had been investigated by the Market Court of Sweden,[3] United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the State of California. 235 0 obj ", Dougherty said he also took into account that Turner "has on a consistent basis and a generous basis contributed large sums of money . Attached to the side stands connected a lone, cylindrical tower that contains a stairwell on the inside. Turner barely escaped jail in 1975 when a federal jury in Florida was unable to reach a verdict after a nine-month fraud trial. Food delivery services such as Grubhub and Postmates included restaurants on their platforms that didnt have contracts with them. Corporate shareholders began to prioritize quarterly profits over long-term results. [25] The Office of the State Attorney General in Maine, United States cites In re Holiday Magic, Inc., 84 F.T.C. "They come from all over this country and abroad. Holiday Magic Inc. et al. "The first time I ever heard those words from those men was in this courtroom," Rector said. We dont trust the government, media or big business. [4], The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a lawsuit in 1972 charging that Koscot's program should be considered a security and comply with securities laws and regulations. Mr. Turner and Mr. Rechtor, who also received seven years, were. 0000003018 00000 n Its not clear who originated the exact wording of fake it till you make it, or how Turner and his followers adopted it. But the real bait was the right to sell the righttosell to other suckers on the principle of a chain letter. "Summary of Testimony and Findings and Conclusions Resulting from Hearings in New York on Drug Law. 72-390. The history of fake it till you make it offers a lesson here, if we want to heed it. [7] As one news story put it: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Think about it: One person could sell 10 distributorships, and each of the 10 could sell 10 more, and so on. And the Wells Fargo C-suite was looking the other way as employees, desperate to meet unrealistic sales quotas, opened millions of fake bank and credit card accounts. But faking it in matters of money is another matter entirely. The book has its lighter moments. 0000001660 00000 n . 0000002201 00000 n When a federal judge lumped together 1,000 of those lawsuits into a single class-action suit seeking nearly $1 billion, Turner went bankrupt. 0000003563 00000 n USA vs Glenn W. Turner, Nash Publications, New York, 1976 Rudy Maxa . The state officer who conducted Turner's investigation noted, "Mr. Turner has demonstrated to this officer an uncanny ability to confuse issues and extend compliments.". Referring to Charles Ponzi, who earlier this century put together a huge investment swindle that still bears his name, Lotstein said, "I imagine there are still people that feel that Mr. Ponzi was doing good for the world. Although Turner was never convicted of a criminal charge, he received probation in a mailfraud case after arranging with the prosecution to plead no contest to a lesser charge. In the end, Turner was saved by New Orleans evangelist, known as the Chaplain of Bourbon Street, who also pointed the way to fiscal salvation by introducing Turner to his own business managera former minister himself. The unfinished castle, its boathouse, stables and surrounding 79 acres will be sold to the highest bidder after a federal court hearing April 26, according to court documents. . But what made him "really rich" was reportedly Koscot Interplanetary[6] (Koscot stood for "Kosmetics for the Communities of Tomorrow"). Martha Stewart sparked headlines in 2005 when she fired a contestant on The Apprentice who embraced the phrase. [10] The FTC's decision on Koscot set a precedent for defining if a company is engaging in illegal pyramiding. Turner's fame and wealth was to be an inspiration for others to buy franchises so that "they could all be rich and successful like him". ", Nevertheless, Dougherty said, the men deserved prison terms because "some of these victims suffered great emotional and financial harm by your actions.". %PDF-1.6 % Turner, 53, created a $300 million empire in the 1970s by selling distributorships in his Dare to be Great and Koscot International companies. Patrick bought all of the cosmetics supplies for $16,250, and founded Holiday Magic, Inc. After the purchase, Patrick began selling distributorships in his new company. 256 pp. I have remorse for these people that did not benefit by what we set out to do. The promised El Dorado, however, was reserved for those who put up the requisite amount for becoming distributors; this gave them the right to sell distributorships to others, retaining a healthy percentage of the fee. Dougherty then passed sentence, despite receiving hundreds of letters in support of Turner. It all carne tumbling down eventually. 0000010114 00000 n One report has him convicted of running a pyramid scheme in Arizona in 1985 and released after five years in prison. The good that I have done outweighs the bad. Glenn W. Turner worked briefly for Holiday Magic in 1966. 0000000016 00000 n (Javice has denied the banks claims.) A nine-month trial ended in a hung jury. Today, the phrase is also a way to push back on the feelings of self-doubt we call impostor syndrome, or to put forward an advantageous personal or professional confidence we might not entirely feel. Rector's only asset is his house, and his only income a $200-a-month military pension, the investigation found. "They come from preachers, lawyers, housewives, plumbers, carpenters," Dougherty said. [28], Ben Gay, a high-level instructor at Leadership Dynamics, was President of Holiday Magic in the United States. 0000037334 00000 n 0000045154 00000 n [5], The State of California filed suit against Holiday Magic in December, 1972. But his empire collapsed after state and federal investigators accused him of operating pyramid schemes that bilked thousands of investors. In 2006 he published a book (To Beirut and Back - An American in the Middle East) dealing, in part, with his experiences. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ A three-story, 16-room castle owned by onetime motivational entrepreneur Glenn Turner is going on the auction block, with the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors splitting the proceeds. 0000006135 00000 n As inequality grew, almost all gains went to those already at the top, leaving many convinced that pretending to be on top already was the best way to make it so. Turner was a former sewing machine salesman and son of a South Carolina sharecropper and an unwed mother, born with a cleft palate and a hair lip, who dropped out in the eighth grade, did a short stint in the U.S. Air Force before successfully finishing a school for those who had dropped out of high school. In re HOLIDAY MAGIC SECURITIES AND ANTITRUST LITIGATION., James J. 0000031956 00000 n The guy at the top could make millions. Attorneys for the two said their convictions would be appealed and asked that they be freed on bond until their appeals are heard. "[7], According to one report target of prosecutors "in more than 30 states" targeted him. The con artist became a business model, says Micki McGee, author of Self-Help, Inc. Its only in a market-worshiping economy that you can say defrauding people in the interest of profit would somehow be okay.. "The Role of Small Business in Franchising, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Minority Small Business. 0000006496 00000 n %PDF-1.7 % xref As it turned out, investors would have to pay $5,000 apiece to participate in the program, which revolved around distributorships for sales of motivational cassettes, classes and books. Turner, Rechtor and a third man, Alan K. Oaks, were accused of defrauding Arizona residents who were promised incomes of $1,000 to $3,000 a month if they invested $5,000 to become sales people for Challenge Inc. Investors were subjected to highly emotional sales and promotion techniques in a process described by company insiders as jacking up prospects, Assistant Attorney General R. Jeffrey Woodburn said during the trial. L|B@9`CwX}LKC the Glenn Turner modification is a good one. endobj "Our intent was to help people believe in themselves.". While prosecutors and defense attorneys haggled over legal issues for an hour before the sentencing, Turner, wearing a blue suit, boots and a shirt with a wrinkled collar, yawned and winked at more than 20 friends and supporters in the courtroom. Unfortunately, the multi-level cosmetic company became entangled in numerous legal difficulties and went out of business in the . GLENN W. TURNER ENTERPRISES, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Defendants. Turner ran in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate election in Florida, 1974, but lost. [11] 1974 hearings before the Congressional Oversight panel of the Federal Trade Commission described Holiday Magic as a "Multi-level marketer of cosmetics", that used an "unfair and deceptive pyramid distribution scheme". DeMuro, RG. In a fitting finale, Turner, stopped for good and all, is saved by a showy evangelist from New Orleans. endstream endobj 166 0 obj <>stream v. Holiday Magic, Inc., et al., N.D. California, Civil Action No. United States House of Representatives. Turner and his best friend, Edward G. Rector, were each sentenced to seven years in state prison. In August 1972, he was charged with "86 counts of sale of unregistered securities and failing to register as a dealer". 0000037159 00000 n hb```e`` /`"\}!5|Z1O(s@Tu4t5UL- M-\\mm||=C#cbC"R32S 0000003839 00000 n Glenn Turner's Winter Park castle currently is for sale for $1.8 million. "Pyramid Sales: Hearing Before the Subcommittee for Consumers of the Committee on Commerce, United States Congress", 1974, United States Congress, Pp. 5616. Traditionally, businesses have had to state their returns using metrics that can only be faked by lying. Turner and a partner, Edward Rector, 57, were sentenced to seven years in prison in Arizona in August on charges of operating a pyramid scheme there and defrauding investors through a self-motivational company called Challenge Inc. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 271 0 obj Just before he was sentenced, Turner told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bernard Dougherty, "My intent has never been to hurt but to help. Jurors found them innocent of 27 counts of securities violations involving Challenge Inc., a motivational company. ". Unsatisfied investors also filed lawsuits. 0000008799 00000 n Today, fake it till you make it has come to represent the scrappy, optimistic mind-set of American hustle culture. 84 F.T.C. ,'nuG>wP6T7:"K3'G9U The empire collapsed in the early 1970s when authorities accused Turner of violating laws against pyramid sales, in which investors at the top make a fortune and those who get in later lose money. 0000003018 00000 n There, it appeared as a way for people in recovery to project themselves forward into a more sober future. A technicality of the law is what got me., But Barnett Lotstein, an assistant state attorney general who helped prosecute the case, said the sentences satisfied the interest of justice.. He seems to have been equal parts P. T. Barnum, Horatio Alger, snake oil salesman and evangelist. Turner packaged this dubious enterprise with a religious fervor that would make Billy Sunday look like the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Equal Credit Opportunity Act Amendments and Consumer Leasing Act-1975., Hearings, United States Congress. 0000003839 00000 n A list of over 350 print sources on paper chain letters and pyramid schemes. Some "schemes" are specifically developed to sidestep Pyramid Scheme legislation by offering a "product" or "service". [5] Though he claimed Leadership Dynamics was a separate company, "..in no way related to Holiday Magic, Inc.", Gene Church pointed out many inconsistencies in this statement, in his book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. ", "Opinion This all-but-forgotten con man sold America on 'fake it till you make it', Juice Plus AKA National Safety Associates, European Grouping of Marketing Professionals, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Koscot_Interplanetary&oldid=1142208959, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 02:56. 0000002472 00000 n "All you have to do is believe it."[7]. The Dream, a podcast about multi-level marketing, discussed Holiday Magic and William Penn Patrick. 271 0 obj 0000031782 00000 n The companies collapsed in 1973 under lawsuits filed by investors and investigations by state and federal agencies. Turner, who was pale and appeared tired, and Rector, his former bodyguard, had no visible reaction to the sentences. ", United States Congress. 0000031782 00000 n We found 28 records for Glenn Turner in Houston, Royse City and 15 other cities in Texas. <> . According to a presentence investigation, Turner, who has been living in North Carolina, is broke and has no assets or income. 0000003297 00000 n The main portion of the building is wide and round, while the top features a design that is fort-like in nature. [3], The company was termed as part of the "big three" scams, in a 1974 United States Senate hearing before the Consumers of the Committee on Commerce that dealt with pyramid sales. Donate 0000032500 00000 n what would happen when these distributorships reached the saturation point, when there was no one left to buy a distributorship, and so many people selling cosmetics that it was impossible to recover the large investment from the small cosmetics commissions? But when the claim has little to no basis in reality, it will almost certainly lead to failure and, as Turner discovered, to oblivion. The Arizona case marked the first felony conviction for Turner, who built a fortune around his Orlando-based pyramid sales 20 years ago. The Challenge program was similar to Turners Dare to be Great program, which won him national attention during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the state attorney generals office said. The company called Zolene was about to go out of business. Turner, 57, served nearly two-thirds of a seven-year term in Arizona for fleecing investors in a scheme for distributing motivational tapes. <<7C981AD2C2A8B2110A00B0784D58FC7F>]/Prev 803466>> 11106 (1975). One representative pyramid venture, Dare to be Great, Inc., is de-scribed in SEC v. Glenn W Turner Enterprises, Inc. 8 . [9] The FTC found that Holiday Magic was in violation of section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, and section 2 (a) of the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Glenn Turner court was confronted with the pyramid sales scheme of Dare to Be Great, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc. Ostensibly Dare sold through four "adven-tures" and one "plan" a motivation training course consisting of printed This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Glenn W. Turner is now all but forgotten. 0000004278 00000 n 0000032500 00000 n What Turner really sold was hope, which is the stock in trade of others beside pyramid sales pushers. I have often wondered if Amway distributors borrowed this terminology from Turners group, or was it Turner who confiscated these words and phrases from some Amway distributors? Kerns wrote. 0 A few of their supporters cried as the sentences were read. In the lawsuit, Avon Products' claimed that "Holiday Magic employees distributed leaflets accusing Avon of goon squads, paying off The District attorney's office.."[7], In June 1973, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Holiday Magic,[8] charging Patrick with "bilking some 80,000 people out of more than $250 million through his Holiday Magic cosmetics and soap empire. Company distributors were encouraged to recruit other distributors in a multilevel marketing structure, which was later characterized as a pyramid scheme. [7] Disillusioned recruits testified against Turner or his companies, and one judge cited the phrase ('fake it until you make it') as evidence of malfeasance. The purpose of this Note is to investigate the [28] The Mind Dynamics course was described as providing "a means of achieving personal success through the conscious use of the subconscious mind". Mailman and Beekman, who pleaded guilty to one count each of violating pyramid laws, will be sentenced next month. "And so can you," they would tell the crowd. Prosecutors said Challenge officials misled investors by telling them they would not have to put up their own money. (Free Speech issue - dismissed), Juice Plus AKA National Safety Associates, European Grouping of Marketing Professionals, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holiday_Magic&oldid=1140202664, Companies based in San Rafael, California, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles needing clarification, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Holiday Magic, Inc. v. 0000003297 00000 n 0000043655 00000 n But nowhere has the ethos of fake it found more fertile soil than in Silicon Valley, where the line between optimism and deceit can admittedly be a fine one. U.S. District Court documents in Orlando indicate there are dozens of other Turner creditors, but it is unlikely they will be paid from any proceeds from the Castles sale, officials said.