Is Visalus a Scam? Time To Unravel This Pyramid Scheme!

Welcome to my Visalus review!

From the many health and wellness MLM companies out there, one tries to stand out from the rest (and sadly, not for the right reason). That company is Visalus. 

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

Let me be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with Visalus in any form.

So, rest assured that I'm not here to pitch or sell anything to you.

Instead, I'm here to reveal the story behind Visalus and their business opportunity. Are you really losing weight, or just losing money? 

We'll find out in this article...

Visalus is an MLM or multi-level marketing company that provides health and wellness products, specifically weight loss products.

Visalus Sciences started out back in 1997 and was founded by Nick Sarnicola and Blake Mallen under the name of The Free Network LLC, a telecommunications-based MLM company in Troy, Michigan.

The company went under in March 2005. But it was saved after it was purchased by wireless Internet developer Ryan Blair thanks to an investment from a private equity firm called Ropart Asset Management.

Both Sarnicola and Mallen retained their positions as Sales Chief and CMO, respectively, after the purchase.

During the 2008 recession, the company hit another roadblock when it almost went bankrupt. The company was $6 million in debt. Then it had another savior.

This time, the company was acquired by Blyth, Inc, another MLM company that sold home decors, which was founded by Robert B Georgen.

Coincidentally, Georgen happens to own Ropart Asset Management.

From there, the company underwent severe changes. During the first stage of the takeover, Blyth purchased a 43.6% equity for $14 million dollars.

Within two years after it almost went bankrupt, they returned to profitability. Visalus was making over $15 million a month.

The second stage of the takeover took place in 2011 and Blyth increased their equity to 57.5% by investing an additional $2.5 million.

Since then, Visalus has competed against other weight loss MLM companies like Isagenix, Optavia, Plexus Worldwide, and Purium.

With Ryan Blair as the current CEO, Visalus became one of the fastest growing MLM companies in its first 3 years at an astonishing growth rate of 1,200%.

Visalus is just like any other weight loss MLM company, but they do have something different in terms of bringing in people to the team.

But before that, let’s take a look at their product categories:

1. Weight Loss Products.
2. Meal replacement products.
3. Fitness products.
4. Lifestyle products including nutritional food shake that will help the customer maintain a healthy lifestyle.
5. Drinks including neon drinks and organic drinks
6. Snacks like nutrabite, nutra cookies etc.

Truth be told, the products are quite more expensive than the other products in the market, but it does rely on the quality of its products to stand above the rest.

This is a good question considering that Visalus relies heavily on weight loss to market its products.

But with any MLM company, there are mixed reviews about the products working or not.

Scientifically, Visalus doesn’t have any documentation behind their formulas or ingredients. Their claims are not even backed by the FDA or Food and Drug Administration.

However, a little bit of poking around led me to some positive reviews, saying the diet program that Visalus is marketing works.

But, I would ask readers to take these reviews with a grain of salt. If you’re on a weight loss program, there are several factors to consider namely diet, workout and exercise regiment, and supplementation.

With these reviews, it’s difficult to pinpoint as to which factor has had the greatest contribution to the success of the program.

Did these people lose weight mostly because Visalus products had anything to do with it?

Or did their workout and diet do more of the leg work for weight loss?

As far as compensation plans go, Visalus operates on a unilevel compensation scheme and provides you with the following ways to earn money:

1. Income on new sales (direct commissions)
2. Residual income on reorders (residual commissions)
3. Bonuses and incentives

Visalus provides distributor kits to its members in order to qualify for its compensation and incentive program.

There are two kits to choose from:

1. Executive Visalus Promotor Kit for $499
2. Star Visalus Promotor Kit for $999

The Executive Visalus Promotor Kit includes shake kits, together with some DVDs, eligibility for the ViDrive Club Program, and other bonuses.

The Star Visalus Promotor Kit contains everything the Executive Kit package has and includes samples of some products.

Here’s a quick look at Visalus’ compensation plan in a graphic format.

Visalus offers as much as 25% commissions on all products. But in order for you to qualify for commissions, you have to sell at least $200 worth of products or bonus volume to become an associate.

As you grow in rank, you’ll also increase your commission rates.

This bonus is paid on the product paid by a new distributor that you enroll following their promoter systems (Basic, Exclusive, or Star Kits).

This is where most of your weekly income will come from. Once you’re an active Associate, you earn a $50 fast start bonus, and that increases as you higher in levels.

This bonus gets paid out as an override to the override to the 2nd generation Regional Director, National Director, Presidential Director, and Ambassador. The total amount paid out is $225.

Distributors are encouraged to get as much of these two fast start bonuses as fast as possible.

This is considered to be a distributor’s long-term walk-away residual or passive income.

Residual team commissions are paid out as a certain percentage throughout a number of levels on the team’s referral line.

The higher your rank is, the more levels you are paid on.

You are paid 5% on each of your different pay levels based on the bonus volume (BV).

1. Active associates are paid 2 levels of referrals.
2. Directors are paid through 4 levels of referrals.
3. Regional Directors are paid 6 levels of referrals.
4. National Directors are paid 7 levels of referrals.
5. Presidential Directors and Ambassadors are paid 8 levels of referrals.

I won’t go into too much detail for their compensation plan, but this video should help you understand more about their program:

The FTC or Federal Trade Commission has classified Visalus and other MLM companies to a pyramid scheme based on the FTC guidelines.

In the 2017 lawsuit, Visalus is described as a “failed pyramid scheme”.

For me, this is already a huge RED FLAG because a governing body like the FTC has gotten involved.

The Visalus owners and management are always fighting one lawsuit after the other.

Back in 2013, founders Sarnicola and Mallen were charged in the United States Federal Court for committing violations concerning the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO.

Then in 2017, another class action lawsuit was filed against Blair, Mallen, and Sarnicola.

This was after its Equity Incentive Plan engaged in securities violations, specifically pertaining to offering shares to its distributors.      

It’s expensive to join the program. The kits themselves are priced between $79 and $999.

To make things worse, the new signees are REQUIRED to purchase a starter kit to join the Visalus opportunity.

The starter kits selected are then placed on an autoship where independent distributors pay a fixed monthly fee and get stocks to maintain their rank and commissions.

My biggest rebuttal here is this: no one’s going to buy a $60 weight loss shake from any company.

I did a quick search on Amazon for weight loss products, and this is what turned up.

Sorting it based on average customer reviews, the best weight loss product is priced at $39.95, and that’s at 180 capsules.

For an extra $20, you can buy 2  bottles and you’d still get more out of it than any Visalus kit.

In all of my reviews, I try to be very objective and open-minded as possible. I try to explore the company’s or program’s positive and negative sides.

However, there was nothing that was worth noting for Visalus and its business opportunity, and I’ll explain why.

Once any company has been flagged or categorized by a governing body to be fraudulent, it would be very difficult to sell that company and its products to anyone.

No one wants to be associated with a company that’s categorized as a pyramid scheme, and no amount of positive reviews and feedback can turn that around.

Visalus is an MLM company that’s been flagged by the FTC as a pyramid scheme.

It’s only a matter of time before a lawsuit or even the FTC themselves will shut the company down for good.

Just for that reason alone, I cannot recommend this program to anyone. It’s risky to be associated with a company that’s categorized as a pyramid scheme.

Another reason why I can’t recommend this to anyone is that the owners are always in trouble with the law.

They’ve already dealt with a class-action lawsuit concerning their pyramid scheme, and another lawsuit for securities fraud.

This is more evidence that there’s something shady going on in terms of how they are handling money.

Lastly, the signup costs are expensive. You’re asking people to invest in almost a thousand dollars’ worth of products that no one’s even going to want to buy.

I'm not a fan of MLM, not because it's illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.

The reason is simple...

• You don't have to recruit anyone to make money
• You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
• It's Free to get started

In fact, with affiliate marketing...