Quixtar continues pissing match with Scheibeler
over interpretation of "who made death threats".
Quixtar files defamation suit against Scheilbeler in Federal Court

A hallmark of US culture, one I'm less enthused by: Unlike other parts of the world, pretty much anybody in the U.S. can take anybody else to court at any time, for any reason.  Played fairly, that’s healthy for a democracy. But there has also emerged a class of lawyers and big corporations who take lightning-strike-odds long shots at their vocal critics, hoping to silence them or to get them to sign Gestapo style confessions to avoid litigation. That’s how I classify a new Pennsylvania lawsuit that makes a bunch of inflated assumptions about some statements that Eric Scheibeler said to some reporters. In the US we look and say, “Ah. The lawyers are at it again.” If you’re outside the U.S., you might not understand that the steamy language is practically campy — but it is.

Back in April of 2006 Quixtar filed an arbitration demand against Scheibeler to take him into the "Jamway" private court (aka Arbitration with JAMS) to settle Scheibeler's supposed "false and defamatory" statements in relation to some threats of violence against him and his family several years back.  The Quixtar arbitration demand was thrown out by a Pennsylvania court since Scheibeler has been out of the Amway/Quixtar business for a number of years.

On Feb 27, 2007 Quixtar filed a defamation suit , exhibits against Scheibeler in Pennsylvania Federal Court.  Why it was filed in Pennsylvania court, I'm not sure.   I would have assumed they would have filed it in Federal court in Grand Rapids, MI. 

The complaint mentions the specific statements, with which Quixtar has a problem.

On March 8, 2006, The Cleveland Free Times published the following statements from the letter, which are attributed to Defendant:

I inadvertently discovered and documented literally billions in systematic consumer fraud. Naively, thinking it was only being perpetrated by Kingpin distributors, I reported it directly to Amway/Quixtar senior management and to Dick DeVos, who was then president and is the son of the billionaire founder (now running for governor of Michigan).

To my shock, I was told in a face-to-face meeting what gun would be used to kill me if I became a whistleblower and made waves. After a decade of diligent work, our sole income was shut off in an effort to starve me into silence. My wife and young son received death threats on the telephone, resulting in an FBI tap and trace on our line. A financial offer was made at the same time we were being pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement. We refused and lost our home and medical insurance and had to declare bankruptcy. I have been advised that a private investigator was hired to follow me in an attempt to find information that would discredit my character.

On or before April 3, 2006, a Swedish newspaper published the following statement attributed to Defendant:

When I, a person quite high up in the organization, discovered and documented the scam, I reported it to the highest echelon, Dick DeVos. That might have been quite naive. But I did it. The result was that I received a direct death threat. My wife and children have been threatened over the telephone. Amway also stopped my income flow in an attempt to silence me. It is ironic, considering that my only aim in writing the book was to protect the distributors.

This unfortunate pissing match continues because Quixtar actually believes that Scheibeler said Quixtar and senior management were behind the threats.   Supposedly the statements falsely state and imply that, inter alia (among other things), Plaintiffs’ senior management threatened to kill Defendant, his wife, and his son!  I don't know about you, but when I read those statements I never assumed that Quixtar or their senior management were behind the threats.  Here again it is my opinion that the Quixtar lawyers have great powers of imagination and excel in creative reading.  

Another example of the Brinks Hofer attorneys' power of imagination is line 23 of the complaint, where it is stated Scheibeler admitted his statements were false or misleading.  Brinks Hofer references a deposition were Scheibeler clarified Quixtar's confusion about who had made the threats.  In the transcript, Scheibeler was not being asked if he thought the statements were false or misleader, yet Brinks Hofer boldly states in their complaint that he admitted his statements were false or misleading. 

In my opinion, it takes a complete leap of faith to assume, from the statements above, that Quixtar's senior management or Dick DeVos were responsible for the death threats.  This topic goes back years and it was widely known that the death threats were attributable to an another Amway distributor and not the corporation itself.  Anybody who can read simple English can discover for themselves that Scheibeler did not say that the threats came from Quixtar management.   Of course Quixtar wants to assume that Scheibeler is implying that Quixtar management was behind the threats, even though there is not clear language in the text stating so.

Interestingly enough Scheibeler was willing to publish a clarification of the statements about the death threats but that did not seem suit Quixtar.  I asked Scheibeler about the suit.   He sent me an authored confession letter from Brinks Hofer attorney Timothy Delaney that they Scheibeler to sign.  The pre authored document is reminiscent of a Gestapo forced confession.  If Scheibeler did not sign the  Quixtar Gestapo confession he would be the target of a court action.  Scheibeler did not sign the pre authored Quixtar authored confession, and his own clarification about who made the threats was not enough to clear up the "creative reading assumptions" of the fine attorneys at Brinks Hofer and at Quixtar.   I think Scheibeler's clarification was straight and to the the point.   However, reading the Quixtar penned "confession", it is my opinion Quixtar wanted him to admit he stated that senior management was actually behind the death threats and that the statements were intentionally false and misleading. 

In my opinion Quixtar has completely overblown this and is going out on a limb now using the threat of a Federal Court action to collect Gestapo like forced confessions to post on their website and the IBOAI website to discredit their critics.  If Quixtar can't respond to the negative information about their business on the Internet, they can at least try to discredit their critics through forced public confessions.   A forced confession or public apology signed by a critic, written by the corporation or its attorneys and made public on their websites,  is worth much much more to Quixtar in propaganda value than the value of what they are seeking in the Federal Court action.  

I really cannot understand why Quixtar continues to pursue the issue.  After all, if Scheibeler did actually state that officials of a well respected billion dollar corporation personally threatened to kill him, do you really think people would take him seriously?  Personally,  if he did state that the senior management of a billion dollar corporation had threatened to kill him, I would no doubt think Scheibeler was some sort of a crackpot.  

I'd like some site visitor feedback on the issue.    Do you think Scheibeler's statements state Quixtar senior management made death threats to him?  Let's see what the "web jury" thinks.  Send me your thoughts.