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Ever since the special partnerships that former Enron CFO Andy Fastow set up to inflate the company's earnings, related-party transactions have been a source of considerable interest and controversy.

St. Louis Dispatch reporter Tim Logan recently took a look at the myriad disclosures of related-party transactions at embattled multi-level marketer YTB International (OTC BB: YTBLA), which I wrote about here.

Here's a quick sampling of the related-party deals at YTB, all of which are disclosed in the company's SEC filings: The company has hired another company, owned by the three of YTB founders, to build a 130 foot tall styrofoam replica of the Statue of Liberty. Executives have also sold a plane, marketing materials and convention-planning services to the company. This is not illegal -- it's all disclosed and the independent members of the company's board of directors approved the deals.

What should investors make of it? YTB is a small company and appears to be an uncommonly egregious example of self-dealing, but the fact is that you probably have many companies in your portfolio that have disclosed related-party transactions. Here are two tips for evaluating them and deciding whether they should be of concern:

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What to make of related-party transactions originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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