Apparently our friends at the Democratic Party of Orange County didn't get the memo. From the LA Times:

Jerry Brown sues YourTravelBiz.com over alleged pyramid scheme

The state attorney general, who seeks to shut down the operation, asks for more than $25 million in fines and restitution.

 

By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 
August 5, 2008

 

SACRAMENTO -- California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown sued an Internet-based travel business Monday, accusing it of operating a pyramid scheme and seeking more than $25 million in fines and restitution. 

The company, YourTravelBiz.com Inc. of Wood River, Ill., recruited tens of thousands of members with promises they'd earn big returns by setting up personal travel agency websites, the complaint said.

The business is "immensely profitable to a few individuals on top and a complete rip-off for most everyone else," Brown said. "Today's lawsuit seeks to shut down the company's unlawful operation before more people are exploited by the scam."

YourTravelBiz.com did not respond to calls to its home office, its public relations firm and its Sacramento attorney. 

The company, which is traded over the counter, describes itself as "a provider of Internet-based travel booking services for travel agencies and home-based independent representatives." In April it reported revenue for 2007 of $141.3 million, up 177% from the previous year. 

YourTravelBiz.com offers two ways to make money: commissions from travel sales and fees for recruiting other participants in what's known as a "multi-level marketing" program. 

The lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court accuses YourTravelBiz.com of enticing individuals to pay more than $1,000 a year in fees with promises that they could become millionaires and qualify for deals available only to professional travel agents.

"In 2007, consumers paid over $103 million to Defendants for websites, but made only $13 million in travel commissions in a business Defendants advertised as the 'easiest way to make money' and earn 'serious income' without any selling," the lawsuit said.

An estimated 62% of 200,000 YourTravelBiz.com participants didn't earn a single travel sales commission in 2007, the attorney general's office said. The California lawsuit is the first by any state against YourTravelBiz.com, said Gareth Lacy, a Brown spokesman.

Mark Ewing, who markets courses in how to become a professional group travel leader, has posted a YouTube video that calls YourTravelBiz.com a "card mill" that provides travel agent identification but doesn't sell travel services.

He said in a telephone interview that YourTravelBiz.com members recently lost accreditation as travel agents from the International Airlines Travel Agent Network, an affiliate of the International Air Transport Assn., an airline trade group. 

"They sell the idea that if you belong to us, you'll get travel agent discounts without having to be a travel agent," Ewing said. "People have had their travel dreams squashed by this."

 

It doesn't take a genious to figure out that this "multi-level marketing" was nothing short of a pyramid scam.  If you go to the DPOC website you'll find that they not only fell for it, but are still clinging to the hope that you can "travel and support your Democratic Party" at the same time! I'm curious to see how long it takes for them to bail out of that one.  

Click here to view the "OC Democrats Travel Agency" website. 

Proving, once again, that the donkey really is the most appropriate mascot for our fellow politicos from across the aisle.  Keep it up guys and girls...and see you in Cancun?