GLENN W. TURNER ENTERPRISES, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Defendants. They drove new Cadillacs and wore alligator shoes. Its not clear who originated the exact wording of fake it till you make it, or how Turner and his followers adopted it. 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 As he was led off to jail, he told reporters: The good that I have done outweighs the bad. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. .to various charitable organizations. Glenn W. Turner is now all but forgotten. In re HOLIDAY MAGIC SECURITIES AND ANTITRUST LITIGATION., James J. trailer Some "schemes" are specifically developed to sidestep Pyramid Scheme legislation by offering a "product" or "service". 0000002742 00000 n New York: William Morrow & Co. $8.95. It all carne tumbling down eventually. 0000010114 00000 n There, it appeared as a way for people in recovery to project themselves forward into a more sober future. During the eight-week trial, however, two former top Turner aides testified that Challenge officials knew their operation was illegal. [15] Larry Stephen Huff, another key individual in the company, served two years in a Federal Prison, for charges related to a Ponzi scam (unrelated to Holiday Magic).[21]. In 1979, his fortune gone, he attempted a comeback with another motivational company called Challenge, Inc.,[6] which led to more legal difficulties. [25] The Office of the State Attorney General in Maine, United States cites In re Holiday Magic, Inc., 84 F.T.C. Food delivery services such as Grubhub and Postmates included restaurants on their platforms that didnt have contracts with them. <> The purpose of this Note is to investigate the 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. 0000003839 00000 n "[7], According to one report target of prosecutors "in more than 30 states" targeted him. 256 pages. of plan, which will be referred to as the Glenn Turner or multi-level distributorship scheme, the promoters offer to the public a series of contracts called "Adventures." A technicality of the law is what got me. By the time he died in 2020, it took more than a year for a newspaper reporter to stumble across his Legacy.com obituary and make note of his death. [16] Katz's Everybody's Business: An Almanac also referred to Holiday Magic as a "pyramid sales organization". 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. 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. Originally the organization distributed goods such as home-care products and cosmetics. 0000008424 00000 n This is a good little book about an earnest con artist who ripped off the American public for $75 million. 0000041306 00000 n "They come from all over this country and abroad. Dougherty said he had received "hundreds" of letters in support of Turner. Attached to the side stands connected a lone, cylindrical tower that contains a stairwell on the inside. One representative pyramid venture, Dare to be Great, Inc., is de-scribed in SEC v. Glenn W Turner Enterprises, Inc. 8 . Warren., 497 F.2d 687., C.A.Wis. 0000004119 00000 n Turner, the son of a sharecropper, told people they. vlyiJ)pd*n\[PN>8Yl^1cyO"`CC\=bu3hB 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. xref Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates. 5 OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT AND SEC. [26] Faltinsky described Holiday Magic as "..the largest pyramid scam of all time.."[27], In 1967, William Penn Patrick wrote a booklet, entitled Happiness and Success through Principle, and founded Leadership Dynamics based on those principles. Mr. Maxa has missed very little about Turner's operations and the soueces of his appeal. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. [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. hb```e`` /`"\}!5|Z1O(s@Tu4t5UL- M-\\mm||=C#cbC"R32S Government needs to return to enforcing meaningful financial regulation; politicians and entrepreneurs who deceive their supporters need to face consequences. [13], The company was cited by the United States House of Representatives in a 1975 hearing[14] as an example of consumer fraud, again in 1977,[15] and in 1991, in a hearing by the House Committee on Small Business. 235 37 As far as Ive been able to discover, these are among the first times that this now commonplace phrase received prominent mention in the media. L|B@9`CwX}LKC What Turner really sold was hope, which is the stock in trade of others beside pyramid sales pushers. 0000037159 00000 n 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. Even then, he never stopped explaining. [6], In February 1973, Holiday Magic was sued for calumny by Avon Products. 0000001769 00000 n 271 0 obj Turner, imprisoned in Arizona prison for fraud, has owed the IRS millions of dollars in back taxes for more than a decade, and the agency has succeeded in foreclosure proceedings against the property in Seminole County. 0000009459 00000 n Two dwarfs would hop out and unroll a red carpet. Rector's only asset is his house, and his only income a $200-a-month military pension, the investigation found. At the meeting Turner's proteges would run to the stage in their flashy suits and fancy shoes, with $100 or even $1,000 bills pinned to their lapels. 0000002201 00000 n The election of Ronald Reagan marked the beginning of an era of worshiping wealth, one in which more and more people came to believe that anything that made money was by definition a success. 271 0 obj 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.. 0000031956 00000 n Mr. Turner and Mr. Rechtor, who also received seven years, were. He then started two multi-level marketing companies, Koscot Interplanetary, selling cosmetics, and Dare to Be Great, selling motivational and self-improvement courses. Citation Needed, a podcast, has an episode about William Penn Patrick (and Holiday Magic). . In the Arizona case, Turner represented himself -- a stark change from the days in the early '70s when renowned defense attorney F. Lee Bailey represented him in his Koscot dealings. 0000032500 00000 n "There have been a lot of books written about Mr. Turner," said Barnett Lotstein, the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case. 0 startxref 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. Even as she spoke, the housing bubble riven with fraud committed (and invited) by banks, ratings agencies, mortgage brokers and appraisers was growing bigger. But the real bait was the right to sell the righttosell to other suckers on the principle of a chain letter. [3], In 1973, Holiday Magic's proceedings were prohibited by the Market Court of Sweden, and a fine of 2 million Swedish kronor was imposed. Best Match Powered by Whitepages Premium AGE 80+ Glenn Turner Houston, TX (Inner Loop) View Full Report Addresses Yoakum Blvd, Houston, TX 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. Just before sentencing, Rector told Dougherty that Challenge had done nothing wrong. But what made him "really rich" was reportedly Koscot Interplanetary[6] (Koscot stood for "Kosmetics for the Communities of Tomorrow"). ", "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. "Pyramid Sales: Hearing Before the Subcommittee for Consumers of the Committee on Commerce, United States Congress", 1974, United States Congress, Pp. PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Promoter Glenn Turner, who became a millionaire through self-motivation businesses, was sentenced with his business partner to seven years in prison Thursday for defrauding. 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.". <>stream 1975, P. 304., Hearings on S. 483, 1900, 1927, and 1961, and H.R. 0000000016 00000 n [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. House Committee on Small Business, 1991. Koscot Interplanetary was a company from Orlando, Florida, selling mink oil-based cosmetics and was started by Glenn W. Turner in 1967. PHOENIX Glenn W. Turner, creator of the "Dare to Be Great" motivational plan, surrendered to Arizona authorities today to face 126 counts of fraud and other charges after waiving extradition. It is a story that will finally end Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona, where Turner, who turns 53 on Wednesday, faces a potentially long prison sentence for the fraud convictions last month that. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Assistant U. S. Attorneys Daniel C. Silva, Mark W. Pletcher, Lisa Sanniti and Carl Brooker. 0000045154 00000 n But it draws on older strains in American life, marrying psychological concepts on how to change human behavior with the positive-thinking self-help culture that might as well be Americas unofficial state religion. 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. [22] According to the Duke Law Journal: "Illegality permeated every facet of the promotion of the Holiday Magic marketing program. The guy at the top could make millions. All these characters in bright red polyester doubleknits, with rhinestone flag lapel pins, dashing around the country making people hum, MMMMMMMM MONEY!. "The Role of Small Business in Franchising, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Minority Small Business. 0000006933 00000 n ), it's too late to put the book down. The Dream, a podcast about multi-level marketing, discussed Holiday Magic and William Penn Patrick. Anyone can read what you share. But as Turners saga shows, theres a dark side baked into the fake it mentality: the fakers who attempt to win success through fraud, then never make good on their promises. It is here that Mr. Maxa shows unusual ability to compress tedious and protracted legal wrangles (one trial lasted nine months) into an absorbing account. [9] "The end began in October 1969, when 14 Koscot distributors in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana sued Turner for failing to pay promised dividends. [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. Turner, 53, created a $300 million empire in the 1970s by selling distributorships in his Dare to be Great and Koscot International companies. In 2006 he published a book (To Beirut and Back - An American in the Middle East) dealing, in part, with his experiences. 0000032500 00000 n [10] The FTC's decision on Koscot set a precedent for defining if a company is engaging in illegal pyramiding. No. Corbins office won a civil case against Turner over Challenge in 1983, ordering him to pay $1.5 million in restitution and $1 million in penalties. 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