Stephen Barrett

Stephen Barrett is a retired psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He focuses on consumer protection, medical ethics, and scientific scepticism. In 2020, Quackwatch became part of the Center for Inquiry; CFI will maintain its various websites and collections.

Casey Bond

Casey Bond is a personal finance reporter who covered the MLM industry extensively for HuffPost. In 2019, she won the Excellence in Personal Finance Reporting award for her piece "MLMs Are A Nightmare For Women And Everyone They Know." Casey's work can also be found on Yahoo!, MSN, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, TheStreet, Business Insider, and more.

Stacie Bosley

Stacie Bosley is an economist with a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota. She is the Kahlert Professor of Economics at Hamline University, Minnesota. She has served as an expert witness for the FTC in pyramid scheme cases. Her work on MLMs has been published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, the Journal of Financial Crime, the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics and Economic Inquiry.

Douglas M Brooks

Douglas M. Brooks is an attorney who has litigated class actions against MLM schemes, including Webster v. Omnitrition International, Inc., 779 F.3d 776 (9th Cir. 1996), cert. den., 519 U.S. 865 (1996), as well as cases against Herbalife, Nu Skin, Melaleuca and Consumers Buyline and others. He has also represented, pro bono, consumer advocates who have been sued by MLM companies and cults, including NXIVM v. Ross Institute, 364 F.3d 471 (2nd Cir. 2004), cert. den., 543 U.S. 1000 (2004). He was featured in the award winning documentary “Betting on Zero” in which he represented victims of the MLM Herbalife.

Ben Brysacz

Ben Brysacz is an Assistant Attorney General with the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. His work focuses on consumer protection. Before joining the Attorney General’s Office, he handled complex commercial litigation and government investigations at the Los Angeles office of an international law firm.

Alanda Carter

Alanda Carter is an Instructional Design professional with a proven ability to design and develop innovative learning solutions supporting business objectives. After surviving breast cancer, Alanda faced professional uncertainty and was drawn to the multilevel marketing industry. Today, Alanda continues to support learning solutions by day and by night she analyzes multilevel marketing opportunities, interviews former distributors, and interviews a variety of experts on her popular YouTube channel.

Sarah Casteel

Sarah Casteel is a second year law student at Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Her interest in the anti-MLM movement is both personal, due to her own experiences and observations, and also academic and law-oriented. She is currently writing a journal note which explores legal and non-legal methods to address the harm caused by MLMs, including social media bans, private enforcement through litigation, Attorney General actions, financial sector liability for failure to report potential money laundering and fraud, and more.

Bruce Craig

Bruce Craig is an attorney retired from the Wisconsin Department of Justice after 30 years of service as Assistant Attorney General. His primary responsibility was as a litigating attorney in its Office of Consumer Protection, and his duties included a number of cases against pyramid schemes. He was also involved in anti-trust litigation and in the area of criminal appeals. He now lives in New York, and has been active on Seeking Alpha and other forums dealing with the subject of pyramid schemes.

Kathleen ‘Kati’ Daffan

Kati Daffan is an Assistant Director in the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Marketing Practices.  Prior to stepping into this role, she litigated fraud cases in the division and advised former Chairwoman Edith Ramirez on consumer protection matters.  Kati has also worked at a civil rights law firm, at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York. 

Liz Day

Liz Day is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, who most recently co-created The New York Times Presents documentary "Framing Britney Spears." Before that, she worked as a senior news producer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO and as director of research for investigative reporting nonprofit ProPublica.

Robert Fitzpatrick

Robert L. FitzPatrick is the author of the books, Ponzinomics, the Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing, and False Profits. He is content producer of the consumer-education website, PyramidSchemeAlert.org. He has served as expert witness and consultant in more than 30 court cases involving multi-level marketing.

Jacob Gilbert

Jacob Gilbert has served as an attorney in the Consumer Fraud Bureau of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General for 8 years. Jacob's work at the attorney general's office covers a wide range of consumer-related issues including auto fraud, home repair fraud, immigration services fraud, and pyramid schemes. Jacob also teaches legal writing as an adjunct professor at a Chicago-area law school. 

Claudia Groß

Claudia is an assistant professor at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, at the department for Organizational Design and Development. Her main interest is on how to design organizations that support ethical behaviour and how to ‘translate’ academic knowledge into better organizational practices. Since her PhD on the MLM industry in Germany, she is interested in and concerned about the manifold and widespread unethical practices in the industry. For further information see https://www.ru.nl/english/people/gross-c/.

Paul Hanna

Paul Hanna has thirty years investigative experience between the London Metropolitan Police Service, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and more recently Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission which he joined in 2016 as its Deputy Director of Criminal Enforcement. He heads up the consumer crime unit where his role includes the management of criminal investigations into breaches of consumer protection legislation and leads a team of investigators engaged in proactive enforcement work.

Steven Hassan

Mental health professional, cult and undue influence expert Steven Hassan, PhD has been working in the field of religious and political cults for more than 40 years.  His expertise includes undue influence in cases of destructive one-on-one relationships, families, parental alienation, mini-cults, religious cults, therapy and self-improvement groups, professional abuse, institutional abuse, human trafficking, and hate and violent extremism.  The author of several books and peer reviewed published papers, his most recent book is “The Cult of Trump.” Dr. Hassan holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Cambridge College and a Doctorate in Organizational Development and Change from Fielding Graduate University School of Leadership Studies. He is a member of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School.  For more information see https://freedomofmind.com

Russell Jutlah

Russell Jutlah is Assistant Deputy Commissioner at the Canadian Competition Bureau, where he oversees cartels and deceptive marketing practices matters at its Toronto office.  Russell’s 19-year career with the Competition Bureau also includes work in this area at the Vancouver regional office, and prior to this, he was involved in merger reviews at the Bureau’s headquarters in Gatineau, Quebec.  Prior to joining the Competition Bureau, Russell practiced law in Vancouver, and he holds Bachelors degrees in Economics and Law respectively from Queen’s University and York University and a Masters degree in Law from the University of British Columbia.

Joseph Kanada

Joe Kanada is an Assistant Attorney General with the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. His work focuses on consumer protection and data privacy matters. Prior to joining the Washington Office of the Attorney General, he investigated and litigated corporate fraud at the California Office of the Attorney General.

William Keep

William W. Keep, PhD is a professor of marketing and former dean of business and interim provost at The College of New Jersey. He has assisted state and federal prosecutors in the prosecution of pyramid schemes and has been quoted in the press (The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg/ BusinessWeek, Financial Times, New York Times, Forbes, etc.) as an expert on multilevel marketing. With Dr. Peter Vander Nat (senior economics, FTC, retired), Dr. Keep published academic articles on multilevel marketing, pyramid schemes, and the evolution of direct selling in the United States.

Joshua Koltun

Joshua Koltun is a general commercial litigator whose practice has focused on media, intellectual property, advertising/trade practices, unfair competition, privacy/ecommerce, and consumer law.  He has been representing bloggers and others who publish on the internet from the very outset of internet publishing, and has particular experience defending the right to speak anonymously.  His pro bono work has included First Amendment work, civil rights litigation, a death penalty appeal, and litigation and other human rights work in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, and most recently, Uganda.  

Heidi Liu

Heidi Liu is a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her research focuses on how behavioral realities intersect with legal theories; trained in experimental and statistical methods, she applies theories from behavioral economics to a variety of legal settings.  She received her A.B., J.D., and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard.

Jane Marie

Jane Marie is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist who produced This American Life for nearly a decade before becoming an independent content creator. She is the host of the popular podcast The Dream, the first season of which focuses on unraveling MLMs. 

Hannah Martin

Hannah Martin is the founder of Talented Ladies Club, an online magazine and training portal for ambitious women. She's an award-winning copywriter with over 23 years' experience working for some of the world's top ad agencies and brands, and is a qualified psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. Hannah has been investigating and publishing articles on the MLM industry since 2017.

D. Anthony Miles

D. Anthony Miles, PhD is a nationally known Startup and Marketing expert. He is a serial entrepreneur, an award-winning researcher, award-winning professor, statistician, legal expert witness, business expert, and bestselling author. Dr. Miles has been featured on numerous nationally syndicated media. He is also a forensic marketing expert. He has conducted research on multilevel marketing for over 15 years.

Joe Mullin

Joe Mullin is a policy analyst on Electronic Frontier Foundation’s intellectual property team, where he works on patent reform, copyright issues, and free speech online. Before joining EFF, Joe worked as a reporter covering legal affairs for the technology website Ars Technica, and American Lawyer’s magazine group. His journalism work has included reporting on pyramid schemes, illegal investment operations, and the origins of Trump University. He has a bachelors degree in history and a masters in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. More information can be found at https://www.eff.org/about/staff/joe-mullin

Gabriella Muscolo

Gabriella Muscolo is a Commissioner of the Italian Competition Authority. As a Judge, she sat at the Specialist Section for IP and Competition Law at the Court for Undertakings in Rome. She was member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office. She is currently a Fellow of the Centre of European Law of King's College London, a member of the Board of Trustees of ERA and of the Advisory Boards of Concurrences e-Competitions Bulletin Boards. She is a usual lecturer of Competition and IP Law at Italian and foreign Universities and publishes in Italian and English in the fields of Competition and IP Law.

Máire O Sullivan

Lecturing at Munster Technological University in Ireland, Dr. Máire O Sullivan's research is focused on female consumer behaviour. She has written for The Conversation on the anti-MLM movement and researched MLM advertising targeting women in particular. Her PhD is from University College Cork. More information can be found at maireosullivan.com.

Noah Joshua Phillips

Following his nomination by President Donald J. Trump and unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate, Noah Joshua Phillips was sworn in as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission on May 2, 2018. Before coming to the FTC, Phillips served as Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. From 2011 to 2018, he advised Senator Cornyn on legal and policy matters including antitrust, constitutional law, consumer privacy, fraud, and intellectual property. Prior to his Senate service, Phillips worked as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, in New York City, and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, in Washington, D.C. Phillips began his career at Wasserstein Perella & Co., an investment bank in New York City. Phillips received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Eric Scheibeler

Eric Scheibler is a former Federal auditor for the Dept. of Energy. He was a high level leader and spent a decade in a MLM motivational organization, travelling and recruiting in the US, South America and the Philippines. He is the author of the book "Merchants of Deception" and appeared on Dateline NBC's investigative show into MLM fraud.

Peter Skolnik

Peter Skolnik represents clients across the United States in media and entertainment litigation and counseling.  He has also spent two decades litigating against cults. For more see:  https://clarkguldin.com/peter-l-skolnik/

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith is a partner in Washington DC Office of the law firm of Covington & Burling, and until earlier this year was Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Under Andrew's leadership, the FTC was active in enforcing laws against unfair and deceptive conduct against MLM companies, including a $150 million settlement with Advocare and a federal court complaint against Nerium. Andrew has been practicing law in the area of consumer protection, financial services and privacy for more than 20 years, and earlier in his career served as a staff attorney at the FTC.

Laura Smith

Laura Smith is the Legal Director at Truth in Advertising, Inc. (TINA.org), where she oversees the organization's overall legal strategy and advocacy actions. Laura has led numerous investigations into deceptive health and income claims promoting multilevel marketing companies. In fact, in the last five years, TINA.org has investigated more than 140 MLMs for their use of these deceptive marketing tactics amassing thousands of claims that violate the law. More information about Laura and TINA.org's mission is available at www.truthinadvertising.org/about/. 

Andrew Stivers

Andrew Stivers is a Deputy Director in the Bureau of Economics at United States’ Federal Trade Commission. He oversees consumer protection economics for the Commission, covering a broad range of deceptive and unfair practices, including pyramid schemes.  Dr Stivers’, with colleagues at the Commission, researches the economic workings of MLMs and pyramids in support of the Commission’s law enforcement mission.

Peter Vander Nat

Peter J. Vander Nat, Ph.D. (University of Notre Dame) served for 15+ years as senior economic expert at the FTC regarding pyramid schemes and has submitted numerous declarations to federal courts. Along with co-author Dr. Bill Keep, he has published articles on pyramid schemes vs. legitimate multilevel marketing. Upon retiring from the FTC in 2014, he remains an active expert witness for government prosecution of pyramid schemes.

Elizabeth Villagomez

Elizabeth Villagomez, PhD is an economist that has researched MLMs from a gender perspective. She has worked for UN entities as global and regional adviser on women's economic empowerment as well as an international consultant. She has also worked extensively for the EU Commission and Parliament, and the European Institute for Gender Equality on employment, social inclusion, gender equality, and discrimination.

Lisette Voytko

Lisette Voytko is a wealth reporter at Forbes Magazine, where she covers billionaires and the world's richest people. She's reported extensively on MLMs, ranging from class-action lawsuits against Donald Trump's MLMs to Herbalife recruiting events marketing an unattainable American Dream, along with assorted legal troubles befalling the industry. She holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.