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FTC Launches Investigation Into Herbalife, Stock Tumbles 15%: Check To Uncle Carl
A week ago, we highlighted something that very few had noticed- an FTC retweet regarding Herbalife. To wit:
Retweets are not endorsements... but they really usually are. Which is the reason some are wondering just why did the FTC show a specific appreciation of this particular tweet sent out yesterday by a user who appears to have a bone to pick with Herbalife, Nu Skin and other alleged pyramid schemes:
#NCPW2014 Why have you not shut down pyramid schemes like Herbalife, Nu Skin and others? What is the FTC waiting for?
— AS (@ArbitrageIt) March 4, 2014
Seen here in the FTC's twitter stream, where incidentally there are virtually no other retweets:
We wondered out loud:
So which is it: is the FTC proud of its lack of action on alleged pyramid schemes and decided to call attention to this tweet, or is it a hint that something bigger is coming in the stock that otherwise is quite irrelevant, if it weren't for the epic billionaire pissing match between Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman, which we be resolved either when HLF is LBOed and Ackman's biggest loss of all time gets even bigger, or when Icahn faces a loss of a few hundred million, which to him is nothing, but losing face to Ackman - everything?
Turns out the tweet was not an accident, and moments ago Herbalife after being halted, announced that indeed the FTC is going after it:
Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) announced it received today a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In response, Herbalife issued the following statement:
Herbalife welcomes the inquiry given the tremendous amount of misinformation in the marketplace, and will cooperate fully with the FTC. We are confident that Herbalife is in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Herbalife is a financially strong and successful company, having created meaningful value for shareholders, significant opportunities for distributors and positively impacted the lives and health of its consumers for over 34 years.
Herbalife does not intend to make any additional comments regarding this matter unless and until there are material developments.
Looks like all that lobby spending by Ackman finally worked. And now, Uncle Carl has to outspend Ackman's lobbyists to impress the whores in Washington even more and to make sure the FTC fishing expedition finds nothing new.
And the market's reaction... from a $68.30 pre-halt close...
Bottom line: it cost Bill Ackman $250,000 to launch an FTC investigation. The only question is whether Carl Icahn will bat an eyelid when spending $250,000,000 to end it?
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Order book showing first bids at $60.10
I'm sure there will be a tweet momentarily.
Carl is unavailable......he's receiving his new nursing home room in Florida
FTC investigation? I would say "solidly bullish"!
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Who the F did Carl piss off?
HERBALD!!!!!
All fradulent schemes like this are the same. Getting in and out at the right time before the truth comes forward with the axe. Right fonestar, you should know this about sh*tcoin?
Uck your brain. Right through the ear.
Herbacoin!
they'd better investigate companies like tesla who want to destroy the car distribution networks in America
Too late. A decade of Uncle Sugar backed car loans has not only destroyed the networks, but the entire industry.
What is it with CNBS & ICon's bearded photo with a goofy smile looking like Ralphie in Xmas Story?
Is it suppose to make this parsitic thief look endearing?
I-con will be dead within a year, but his son is a real genius i hear, been long NFLX and twatter
Ordering his custom fit Depends?
"Impress the whores in Washington" lmao! Tyler's, that's the best line I've ever read!
Well...at least one Ponzi Scheme is getting "investigated" in this country.
Is this bullish for similar investigations into Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and the Federal Reserve system?
Do I need a sarc tag for that second sentence?
Yeah, someone at HLF forgot to pay the most important bill...
Ya, the one delivered in the brown paper bag!
Prepare for a thorough wrist slapping sir!
Hope Carl has a fresh pacemaker battery. Would love to be a fly in his office right about now.
Don't worry Carl will make some calls and go all in once he gets word from the FTC that Herbalife has been cleared and the stock doubles past its 52 week high in one trading session.
That has been the reality of the past five years. Perhaps, however unlikely, reality will reappear and Herbalife will be taken down. I'm not holding my breath though.
this of course would explain the last minute push down of Gold and Silver on the CRIMEx right...just sayin
http://www.kitco.com/charts/livesilver.html
Those still seated in the front few rows for this freak show please put on your raincoats. Its about to get jizzy in here.
Down 11% so far! LOL!
Didn't what's-his-name cover his huge short just a few months ago?
Now there is a guy who is puking his guts out.
Does the SEC now investigate FTC staff for insider trading?
Only the ones who weren't short before this announcement, and definitely not any of their relatives.
Do Carls twits get any investigation via aapl nflx ect? Didnt think so
This is just another sign as to how corrupt the system has become. It's pretty pathetic when a person with a well known short position in the stock is not called out for his conflict of interest.
Yeah that's right! Like how Michael Burry should be called out for his anti-American shorts. And the dude warning about Madoff. They had conflicting interest and should be called out dammit! The problem isn't fraudsters, it is whistleblowers. Because if we didn't have people exposing scams, we would never know about them, and what we don't know can't hurt us.
Bottom line: it cost Bill Ackman $250,000 to launch an FTC investigation. The only question is whether Carl Icahn will bat an eyelid when spending $250,000,000 to end it?
Greatest line I read on ZH all day. I think i laughed a bit more than I should have, although this is all very sad.
Below: is no longer a myth.
This is going into the Farm Bill as per the influence of Monsanto. The Affordable and Safe Food 'act' as they are calling it will ensure no GMO foods are labeled & the FDA will be in charge of that, and even define what is 'natural' so that all gene-spliced foods... will be 'natural'!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3055914/posts
To: goodwithagun
It's coming, complete government control of the entire food distribution chain.
If we can't put a stop to the gov't regulating everything, we will one day soon see an "Affordable Food Act" that will dwarf 0bamacare in scope, cost and intrusion.
Not everyone need health care every day but everyone has to eat.
Control the food; control the people.
posted on Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:02:54 PM by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
Start with Icahn's fucking Twitter account - good a place as any to shut this fucking asshole down!!!
In the dusty trailer park I grew up in, we really did have a character called 'Uncle Carl.' He was a forty-something man who hung out with the teenagers and managed to impress some of them that he was some sort of a guru, recruiting them into his schemes. He apparently made his living from some combination of meth cooking and car thievery. I heard he used to knock over storage units, too. He died of cancer about ten years ago.
There is no point to this story.
The giant Herbalife complex in Torrance CA must be a mirage, Herbalife is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Wow, I wonder how many people work at Herbalife's corporate office there? Is there a desk and a phone?
You have to be an idiot or a thief to believe Herbalife is anything but a massive money laundering pyramid scheme. The pieces aren't that hard to put together. Multi level marketing, self reported sales numbers, no hard data on "distributors", and a Cayman Island address.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent Sinaloa cartel events. My hypothesis all along has been that Herbalife is a massive money laundering and product distribution shell corporation for the Sinaloa cartel.
Maybe there has been a little tension with the CIA and they are making a little show of force. Play ball or we'll take down one of your laundering operations. After finding out what banks like Well's did a massive publicly traded drug cartel money laundering organization operating with explicit approval of the US government doesn't seem far fetched.
I'll be watching out my window for black helicopters.
Herbalife is selling product and taking in the money for those products. The fact that people buying the products can't resell them isn't really the companies problem. It just makes Herbalife resellers idiots. If you buy a McD's franchise and find you can't sell many burgers, does that make McD's a criminal entity? No, it simply means the franchise owner is an idiot.
Herbalife distributors aren't franchises. They don't own their business or pay francise fees. McDonald's also doesn't sell a franchise burgers and book them at the full retial price before they are sold. I also don't have a cashier at McDonald's telling me to buy a McDouble so I can go out and sell it on the sidewalk.
A franchise is an independent business that pays a percentage to use the logo and marketing materials of a larger corporation to attract more customers. Franchises are allowed to price themselves independently and operate within a set of guidelines. They also generally own the property where they operate, or pay a lease. Very different from a multi-level marketing distributor.
maybe all the bad publicity is helping them move product?
It's not like the product itself is harmful.
Like the cancer causing cream they were selling a few years ago. Or the tainted energy drink.
The $35 salt water miracle potion is probably ok. I mean you cam make ot yourself with tap water and table salt, but that Herbalife bottle is worth $35 easy.
What kind of greedy fucker do you have to be- to short a stock and then muscle or bribe officials to investigate it in order to make a profit? Or satisfy your mammoth ego?
Seriously. The. system. is. broken.
The issue is Ackman is right and Herbalife is an illegal pyramid scheme. It should be investigated and shut down. The system is broken at its heart, none of these corporations should have been allowed to get off the ground let alone grow into multi billion dollar publicly traded behemoths.
Only the law has been massaged and there is a gray area where illegal pyramid schemes can legally operate. They just change the fee required to join into purchased inventory. Instead of paying up front to become a distributor, which is illegal, you agree to purchase a set quantity of inventory on terms. Herbalife then records this inventory as a sale even though money has been transferred. The idea is that you will sell the inventory within the term period to satisfy your outstanding bill. Instead you end up with a garage full of product you can't sell and a Herbalife rep coming to collect. If you can't pay they'll take collateral.
One thing I know, I now want to be as far away as I can get from any stock owned by Bill Ackman or Carl Icahn. They are both prime examples of the disease that is destroying our markets.
battle of the greedy khazars - whoever wins we all lose
AMAZING HOW MANY OF THESE INSTITUTIONS CAME INTO BEING IN 1913/1914
Carl is pretty smart, he's probably already locked in his gains with options, but kept a position to twist the knife. Acckman's basis is probably in the $50's so the stock has a way to fall for him to see the light of day.
Ackman gaining some traction; throwing it into 3rd gear and hitting the NOS button to pass Ichan before the finish line.
FTC is like a drug sniffing dog. Only sniffs when told to. Otherwise likes to roll around in cat shit and chase squirrels.
All iCahn has to do is buy up everything HLF makes. That would make sure he wins against Ackman.
Carl iGape
Icahn's family and office staff were just seen holding an herbalife party.
I haven't kept up on the details on the details on HLF but they've been around for over 30 yrs? Is the contention that they once were legit and then went rogue in recent years? They were pretty much the pioneers on modern nutrition plans with weight loss (guarana) and shakes etc... How could a ponzi go on for 30 yrs?
Common_Cents22 said: "How could a ponzi go on for 30 yrs?"
Ask the FED.
You have just been terminated Ichanator.