Scheibeler Writes Patriot News Editor

September 11, 2007

The Patriot-News
Editor John Kirkpatrick
812 Market Street
Harrisburg PA 17105

Re: Recent article

Dear Mr. Kirkpatrick,

I am writing this letter in order to take issue with an article about me that appeared in your newspaper on September 1, 2007 ("Ex-Amway distributor admits lying"). The article refers to a letter I signed as part of settlement of a lawsuit filed by Amway and Quixtar against me. The lawsuit alleged that certain statements attributed to me in several articles published in various newspapers and websites were lies. I issued a letter of clarification pdf_icon.gif (914 bytes) regarding these statements only to settle the lawsuit and to correct any misinterpretations of the statements I made. However, at no time did I misrepresent any facts concerning my dealings with Amway and Quixtar.

Your article incorrectly characterizes my clarification of facts. For example, Amway and Quixtar contended in the lawsuit that I implied that I received death threats from them. My clarification was intended to make clear that, while my family and I did receive death threats, I have no reason to believe that the death threats came from Amway, Quixtar or any of their officers or employees. The circumstances are detailed in my book, Merchants of Deception, available to the public at no cost from www.merchantsofdeception.com. Both the book and website remain intact and unchallenged and I reaffirm the facts contained in them.

I am deeply concerned about your characterization of my letter of clarification and its effect on my reputation for honesty and integrity. My letter of clarification was not an admission that I lied about Amway and Quixtar. On the contrary, I issued my letter of clarification so that prior stories containing statements attributed to me would not be misunderstood. I hope that you will correct the record accordingly.

Sincerely,

Eric N. Scheibeler

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If you read the letter of clarification pdf_icon.gif (914 bytes) from Scheibeler you will see that it does not differ much from the clarification letter from Mar, 2007 he issued before the trigger happy attorneys at Brinks Hofer for Amway/Quixtar sued him. 

Let's look at what Patriot-News John Beauge wrote and what Eric Scheibler wrote:

Beauge: 
"former Amway Corp. distributor in Lycoming County admitted that he lied when he said he'd uncovered billions of dollars in consumer fraud with the company."

Scheibler:  Did not even mention this issue in his letter of clarification

Beauge:
"Scheibeler states in a letter to an attorney for Amway and Quixtar that he falsely said he and his family were threatened, that he had been offered money in exchange for his silence and that Quixtar did something to his Web site. "

Scheibler did not admit he "falsely said" anyplace in his letter.   He clarified once again what Quixtar had falsely assumed about the real threats his family received:
"Dick DeVos has never threatened me or my family or caused any such threat to be made".
in Scheibeler's March 2007 clarification before Quixtar's suit he made that point clear.

It is clear to me that Mr. Beauge is making his own misinformed interpretation of Scheibeler's letter of clarification that is just as absurd as what Quixtar assumed Scheibeler had said about the death threats.  It would be interesting to know if Beauge actually saw Scheibeler's clarification before he wrote the article or if he had just received "a tip". 

It is also interesting to note the tone about the second letter of clarification on the Alticor Blog website.    Unlike the misinformed reported, John Beauge from the Patriot-News, Quixtar openly refrains from using the words "admitted", "lied", and "falsely said", they only say now "recanted".  Now if Scheibeler actually did admit to "lying" and "falsely saying", I'm sure their Blog and the IBOA would have it pasted all over their sites.  I think what Alticor is not saying means a whole lot more than what the misinformed reporter John Beauge from the Patriot-News pulled out of his butt.   Maybe the Alticor Blog should re-title their page "Scheibeler Restates his clarification for the record".   

Now if you look at the lawsuit from who won and who lost, I would have to say that Alticor would have lost the case and the mediator told them they would.    That is why you have the suit being dropped two months after Scheibeler issued his second clarification in July of 2007.   I guess the mediator told the fine attorneys from Brinks Hofer that the case was ridiculous and Scheibeler's two letters of clarification should be enough to clear up their misunderstandings of the situation.   In his second clarification Scheibler has only apologized that people misinterpreted his statements and not that he said anything "false" or "lied".   Alticor was not able to extract an admission of lying and that is probably why despite having this clarification letter since July they did nothing with it until the Patriot News article came out.  Alticor was possibly holding out to extract a confession from Scheibler, to damage is credibility on the Internet as an expert Quixtar critic.  The second letter of clarification is almost identical to the letter Brinks Hofer required pdf_icon.gif (914 bytes) Scheibeler to sign before the lawsuit started, but just leaving out the word "false".

The whole situation is unfortunate as it shows how anyone with money can use the legal system to beat on their critics.  A "losing pays" system as in many countries in Europe help keep frivolous SLAPP lawsuits from even being filed.