Former agents sue YTB InternationalSt.
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(6)Related News
UPDATED: BBB received 90 complaints about YTB, Ill. AG received 70 [St.
Louis]
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Brown sues over alleged pyramid scheme [Los Angeles]
Former agents for YTB International have filed a class-action lawsuit
against the company, alleging it's an illegal pyramid scheme.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Illinois, seeks $100 million
in damages on behalf of plaintiffs Faye Morrison and Kwame Thompson and more
than 1,000 other members.
The Wood River, Ill.-based company "purport(s) to sell travel services, but
their business is primarily based upon the inducement of additional persons
to serve as 'travel agents,'" the lawsuit states.
"Our goal here is for those folks -- and there are many of them -- who
shelled out their hard-earned cash with no prospect of seeing anything in
return, that they are made whole," said Jay Kanzler, one of the lawyers
representing the former YTB agents.
YTB "believes it has meritorious defenses and intends to vigorously defend
the case," according to the company's filing Monday with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
On Aug. 4, California Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. sued YTB and the
company's founders, Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, Kim Sorensen and Andrew
Cauthen, for allegedly operating an illegal pyramid scheme. The lawsuit
seeks $15 million in fines and restitution.
More than 160 complaints have been lodged against YourTravelBiz.com with the
local Better Business Bureau and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who
has partnered with the California attorney general in his probe.
Last week, thousands of agents attended a national convention in St. Louis,
where they defended the company as legitimate.
kvolkmann@bizjournals.com
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