On his website totalwellnessnetwork.com, Dr. Ladd McNamara extols the benefits of network marketing: "20% of all millionaires in the world made their fortune through the Network Marketing system," he writes.

But if 20% of the world's millionaires got that way through multi-level marketing, they also apparently go that way through tax evasion. In a paper titled Who Profits from Multi-Level Marketing? Prepares of Utah Tax Returns Have the Answer, Consumer Awareness Institute President Dr. Jon M. Taylor wrote about his interviews with tax preparers about multi-level marketing:

A manager of H&R Block in northern Utah, told me that during his 25 years of doing over 12,000 tax returns a year between he and his group, they could not remember a single client who had reported a significant profit over any appreciable period of time in MLM! ... And a tax software developer, who dealt with thousands of tax preparers across the country, said he had asked about 100 of them if they had ever seen a profit reported from MLM participation. None had. This was out of a total of over a million tax returns ...

More than 800 Pennsylvania homeowners have been hoodwinked into almost losing their homes. The homeowners refinanced their homes with Wesley A. Snyder, who has now pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges and faces up to 30 years in prison.

The homeowners took out mortgages on their homes, borrowing more money than they really needed to refinance or purchase the homes. The excess funds were given to Snyder, who promised to invest them. They gave him the money because he promised they'd get lower interest rates on their mortgages by doing so.

Snyder made off with more than $29 million from homeowners during his 19-year scheme.