John Oliver Goes After MLMs With Focus On Herbalife

The dramatic saga of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) added a vocal new character over the weekend as John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” weighed in on Herbalife and other multi-level marketing (MLM) companies.

Herbalife and its recently-departed former CEO Michael Johnson have been touting the company’s $200 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year as good news for the company. However, Oliver pointed out that the FTC’s ruling on Herbalife did everything but explicitly use the work “pyramid.”

“Who knows why the FTC stopped short," Oliver said on his show. "Perhaps it insured Herbalife agreed to a settlement in which they neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing but did pay $200 million and agree to significant new changes. But the contents of this complaint are mind-blowing.”

Oliver then referenced the post-news press conference by FTC chair Edith Ramirez in which she said Herbalife was “not determined not to be a pyramid.”

Oliver noted that the FTC also ruled that “Herbalife is going to have to start operating legitimately.”

“Last Week Tonight” highlighted the stories of a handful of Herbalife salespeople that have lost thousands of dollars during their tenure with the company and others who were caught on camera claiming that Herbalife products could help cure heart disease and even cancer. The company has said that these claims are not made by the company and that salespeople making such claims are disciplined.

“Good, hard-working people are going to keep getting caught up in these companies, and there has to be a way to tell the world about the dangers of MLMs,” Oliver concluded. “Last Week Tonight” has launched a viral video campaign with the hashtag #thisisapyramidscheme to raise awareness of the dangers of MLMs.

This month, Carl Icahn upped his stake in Herbalife to 23.1 percent, suggesting he could be interested in taking the company private in the near future.