Those of you who have been reading BloggingStocks regularly know that I'm a frequent critic of USANA Health Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: USNA), the multi-level marketing company that has been under attack by critics led by ex-con turned fraud investigator Barry Minkow.
Now Forbes has joined the chorus of critics. With a story that has sent the stock down more than 7% today, Forbes raises questions about the viability and legality of Usana's business model. The author, Evelyn Rusli, reiterates New Zealand's National Business Review's report that the company is being investigated by the FBI.
Nothing much seems to have changed. Usana still has no idea why their auditor left but CFO Gil Fuller has become philosophical: "Life is too short to dwell too much on it."
In addition, the piece states that Usana may be in breach of the covenants on its credit facilities as a result of its extremely aggressive share buyback program.
Despite the fact that virtually all of Minkow's allegations have turned out to be true -- and the fact that Usana hasn't really rebuked a single one specifically -- the company keeps up the personal attacks and diversions: "We believe everything he says to be false," Usana spokesman Joseph Poulos told Forbes.com. "He's a liar; he's a criminal -- he can't be trusted."
Funny. I was just thinking the same thing about Usana.
Entrepreneur's Journal: Putting together a solid sales contract
The week in preview: Earnings from Walmart, Macy's, and other retailers
Six top trades for the rest of 2009
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-11-2007 @ 10:45AM
Tracy Lund said...
Exactly which of the "mostly all" have been PROVEN?
8-25-2007 @ 7:21AM
david thornton said...
Excellent article. Too bad the media in Canada doen%u2019t have the same intestial fortitude. If they did thousands of U.S. citizens would not be scammed by Canadian frauds.
And now, USANA%u2019s lies have caught up with them and the proverbial stuff is really %u201Chitting the fan%u201D
http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/news/UsanaPyramidScheme.html
And FYI, the granddaddy of them all AMWAY is now on the skids and following close behind will be thousands more mlm and net-work-marketing scams. This now comes from the very top %u201Cguns%u201D of AMWAY!