Florence Affidavit concerning IBOAI "Secrets"

"Furthermore, I am confused as to why the IBOAI, which was created to serve and protect the IBO's in Amway/Quixtar, wants to keep this fact confidential"

A site visitor send me an affidavit signed by Billy Florence, which I assume is in connection to the IBOAI's issuance of a temporary restraining order to prevent further "secret" information which concern rank and file Amway/Quixtar distributors from becoming known to the rank and file distributors.  

On my page "your IBOAI wants to keep secrets from you", on August 19, 2007, I highlighted some of the issues that the temporary restraining order being issued by attorney Stephen Turner and to be signed by Jody Victor.

The first thing that jumps out in M. Florence's affidavit is that the supposed legal council for the IBOAI is Rick Abraham.    It is stated numerous times in the affidavit that the IBOAI attorney is Rick Abraham.   I was wondering why then did Rick Abraham not author and start the temporary restraining order against the 5 former board members?  I guess the IBOAI has numerous attorneys working for them.    The question still open is who can engage the attorneys against the others when it appears there is a civil war inside the board?   Now to complicate things even more, Rick Abraham and his father Bill Abraham, with offices in Ohio have also been the family attorneys for the Victors.   Just look at the Anderson case you should know you need to be careful about who else your attorney works for, before you trust them with confidential information.    If the company recommends an attorney to you, especially one from Grand Rapids for a lawsuit, you can very well suspect the company will be able to keep close tabs on the progress of your suit. 

Also interesting is that Rick Abraham has advised members of the board that Quixtar is operating illegally due to the lack of retail sales. Wow that is something new to me.   An attorney who tells you what you don't really want to hear! I thought as long as you paid them they would try to bend and twist the law as best they could in order to get their client's wishes.    

The affidavit states that diamonds have been advised that they were exposed to civil liability as promoters of the Quixtar business.  It would be also interesting to know if Mr. Abraham ever advised the diamonds and the IBOAI that their tools systems were not also illegal operations due to the lack of retail sales for those items!

Anyway back to the point, Mr. Florence goes on to rebuttal why certain items in the temporary restraining order request were not IBOAI confidential items at all.

Here is what the IBOAI complaint states:

"18.  The California Case contains allegations in paragraphs 43, 48, 50, 51, 64, 65, 66, 94 and 96, among others, that disclose confidential information and trade secrets (the "Confidential Information"), which the Defendants could only have learned as a result of their membership and activities on the IBOAI Board."

43. Quixtar only exists on the backs of its distributors.      Quixtar's prices have increased so much in relation to ordinary retail prices that its products cannot be sold to outside consumers.   In fact, a 2006 report prepared by Quixtar states that only 3.4% of its total volume comes from those who do not participate in Quixtar's compensation plan.

48.  In April of 2000, the IBOA conducted a "Confidential Competitive Analysis" of the Quixtar products.  The IBOAI compared the Quixtar products with three competitive market leaders in each type of product and a cost per unit measurement was established to fairly compare the products.       In almost every item, the Quixtar products were substantially overpriced in comparison to the three industry leaders.  

50.  Quixtar's Second-in-Charge Randy Bancino commissioned an analysis and report from McKinsey Consultants regarding whether Quixtar products were overpriced and not sellable.   The McKinsey Report was prepared 2005, and its findings were presented to the entire IBOAI Board with various Quixtar representatives.    The McKinsey Report showed that there were very few retail customers buying Quixtar products, and that hardly anyone was selling Quixtar products at retail   

51. On February 27, 2007, a member of the IBOAI, sent a lengthy email to the chairman f the IBOAI Board, stating that the founding families were unapologetically profiting from the failed efforts of the IBOs.
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96  President Doug DeVos himself has state at the IBOAI Board meetings that "Quixtar is an internal consumption company." no a retail sales company.

Florence's response:

Item 43:  The 3.4% number was given to all diamonds at diamond club and had nothing to do with the IBOAI.

Item 48:   The document came from the IBOAI but there are many other similar documents which should be presented to the court in CA.

Item 50:  The McKinsey report was shared with other non IBOA members and Quixtar leaders by the company.   These leaders then shared the information with their groups. 

Item 51:   The E-mail was from Joe Markiewitz, a non board member at the time who attended the board meeting.   Later he became a board member.    

Item 64: The document came from the IBOAI but there are many other similar documents which should be presented to the court in CA.

Item 65:  The "Jay Factor" was commonly known outside of the IBOAI.

Items 66, 94:  The document was confidential but it is common knowledge that Quixtar does not enforce the retail sales rules.

Item 96:  It is generally known that Quixtar operates as an internal consumption company. 

As an exhibit in in the affidavit it is interesting to see the quote from Joe Marckiewicz a CURRENT Double-Diamond in "good standing" on 27, Feb, 2007.

"people are not making money and diamonds and emeralds are going back to work"
"Now it looks like QX wants to regulate the tools systems and structure the systems like in India, Russia, and Europe.   This scares me."