Apologies for the bad translation here but if you want you can read the news at ABC.ES (in Spanish).

A man has DIED and another person in the family is affected by a poisoning, presumably associated to the consumption of noni (a tropical fruit) juice, in the granadina locality of Ogíjares. The Council of Health has issued an alert. The American company Tahitian Noni International, that sells the juice, assured that its product was approved by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2003 and has passed controls sanitary as much in Tahití, producing island of the fruit, like in the countries where east juice is bottled.

BUT DID THEY ALSO ADMIT TO CONTAMINATION ISSUES ?

This man, of 40 years of age, died shortly after having had breakfast that included Noni Juice, of which he was habitual consumer. A few minutes after ingesting the juice the victim felt a sensation of creeps in the mouth and blurred vision. These symptoms also affected the other person who took the juice. Health services could do nothing for the man and had two hypotheses; poisoning or anaphylactic shock.

The article also says that in addition to Noni Juice being sold as a “health supplement” that there is no scientific evidence of ANY benefits attributed to Noni Juice.

Kathrin Aue from Tahitian Noni in Europe defends the juice by saying it is “totally safe” for human consumption because it has passed all requirements of the EFSA. In a statement the company said it is trying to find the lot number of the bottle in order to figure out what region of French Polynesia the noni came from and from what trees it was extracted.

WE DOUBT THAT VERY MUCH, WHICH TREE IT CAME FROM?!

And last but not least,
HAS THIS ALSO PASSED THE EFSA REQUIREMENTS?

From Typically Spanish: “The juice is Tahitian Noni imported by a company in Mexico. The Junta de Andalucía’s health department has issued a warning about a tropical fruit juice understood to be sold over the Internet which could be associated with a fatal case of food poisoning in Ogíjares, Granada province. A relative of the victim was also taken ill”.

Why is this not surprising after learning about contamination and quarantine situations at Tahitian Noni International? Could this have been prevented by the FDA and FTC? What could the European Union have done about this? Lots, of course. But they didn’t. How can a so-called “health” and “wellness” company, operating as a pyramid scheme also known as MLM (multi level marketing) ship bad products and not expect trouble over it? How can contamination problems causing extremely high levels of potassium and associated yeast and bacteria (normally killed by preservatives) not lead to anything other than trouble? Do we need to start reminding people that the patent on Noni Juice that Tahitian Noni so proudly loves to mention is that for a SEWAGE CLEANING solution?

Is this a death that resulted from greed, ego, and the desire to earn money selling a snake-oil cure-all badly produced bottle of “miracle” juice? It certainly might be and inquiring minds want to know.

We are certain that Tahitian Noni International would love for this to be the end of that sad story but it shouldn’t be, and won’t be. No amount of crisis management, threats, or underhanded corporate politics will end that story because it’s a story that needs to be told and everyone remotely aware of how Tahitian Noni Juice is sold knows that the real value of the product is the stories they use to sell it by. Well, will the family of the deceased have a story to tell you then! Stay tuned for more information and details as this situation gets examined, scrutinized and published.

A spokeswoman of Tahitian Noni has indicated that the company is collaborating with the Spanish authorities to determine the cause of the death that followed the consumption of the juice.

You can read the entire warning issued by the AESAN here (in Spanish).

“Thanks for responding to my notice on WAHM. The job is for a Processor for Tahitian Noni International. Processors receive orders, confirm availability, receive payment for the orders and pay employees/vendors. Salary is $2000 monthly, paid bi-weekly via bank wire, plus 5% of every order you process. Orders are processed via bank wire and sometimes Paypal.  If this sounds like something you would be interested in, let me know and I’ll send you an application and an NDA to sign. If you have any questions, let me know. My name on Skype is Renae.hrc, feel free to call.  I look forward to hearing from you.” Signed by, Renae Lindley.

As the The Eclectic WAHM responds:

Repeat after me, folks: THERE IS NO LEGITIMATE JOB PROCESSING PAYMENTS FROM HOME. It is always a scam. Every time. There isn’t a legitimate company out there that needs its employees to transact company business through their own personal accounts. If a job asks you to accept payments, keep some of it then forward the rest on, and you actually do it… you’ve bought yourself a ticket to debt and jail.

Source: Akron BBB
In a case reminiscent of the cure-all potions from the old west, four Attorneys General announced a settlement with Morinda, Inc., a Utah-based marketer of a beverage called “Tahitian Noni.” The wonder juice was advertised as having the power to cure or prevent a variety of disorders including diabetes, depression, hemorrhoids and arthritis. The product has not been approved for these uses by the Food and Drug Administration.

Under the terms of the agreement, Morinda will not claim the product can cure, treat or prevent disease until it is approved by the FDA. Further, the company will not make any such claims without substantial scientific evidence and will refrain from using testimonials implying that the advertised results are the typical experience of a consumer in acutal conditions of use, unless there is adequate information that the results are indeed typical. Morinda must provide refunds to consumers upon request and pay $100,000 in investigative costs. Coincidentally, the company also uses the Internet to promote a multi-level business opportunity to retail the product.

And it is approved to sell as maintenance for cholesterol?
See the billboard below.

Source: Utah MLMarketing
Noni Super Juice? And it’s advertised as helping maintain Cholesterol at healthy levels? This is a billboard for TNI’s Noni Juice on the west side of the freeway in Lehi, Utah, only a few miles from the distribution center. It this not a HEALTH CLAIM? The very same health claims that TNI has been sued over in the past? The kind of health claims that distributors are not allowed to make? It will be interesting to hear what the FDA might have to say about this form of advertising in Utah.

Source: Utah MLMarketing
In a follow-up on our report on May 22nd, 2007 titled Tahitian Noni Juice - Quality (OUT OF) Control?! we can show you the situation with the quarantined Tahitian Noni Juice bottles. Click on the images to enlarge them and read the follow-up information.

Source: Daily Herald
In addition to our publication of the Consent Judgement, Grace Leong at the Daily Herald has run the following article regarding TNI settling their hormone cream suit.

A legal dispute involving Tahitian Noni and a California group over a hormone cream the Provo company claims treats menopausal symptoms, was recently settled. Tahitian Noni paid $50,500 to the California Women’s Law Center, a Los Angeles-based women’s civil rights group, and its executive director, Katherine Lee Buckland, to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of California’s health and safety codes and other consumer protection laws relating to unlawful competition and false advertising.

Tahitian Noni, in its settlement, agreed to add warning labels to its product — the Tahiti Trim Plan 40 Body Balance Cream — that states it contains progesterone, “a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer” and should only be used with a physician’s advice. According the National Cancer Institute, a large clinical trial published in 2002 showed that hormone replacement therapy (a combination of the hormones estrogen and progesterone) increased women’s risk of developing breast cancer and heart disease. But these cancer warnings will only be added to Body Balance Cream products sold in California. That’s because California has Proposition 65, a state law that requires companies to provide warning labels if their products contain chemicals that can cause cancer and birth defects.

Michael Drake, assistant general counsel for Tahitian Noni, said the company isn’t required to provide cancer warnings on hormone creams sold in Utah or elsewhere. “The consent judgment has to do with labeling requirements in California. We just need to adjust our product labeling in California,” he said.

Mike Weingarten, global public relations manager for Tahitian Noni, declined to comment on the number of Body Balance Cream products sold annually in Utah and nationwide. Roger Carrick, lead attorney for the California group, said Utahns should call on their federal and state regulators including the Attorney General’s Office and request similar cancer warnings in Utah. Carrick said the FDA has not recognized the cream as safe or effective. But the product is still advertised as a way to ease menopause symptoms and is sold mainly in stores and on the Internet. Still, scientists are divided over the role of progesterone in cancer risk. Paul Murphy, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office in Utah, said he couldn’t specify immediately what steps would be taken by the government. “A private lawsuit against a single company isn’t likely to force the government to act,” he said.

With the passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which is co-authored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the burden of showing whether a drug or a supplement was unsafe is now placed on the federal Food and Drug Administration, rather than on the company. “We hope the FDA will take the cream off the market. We filed the lawsuit after the California Women’s Law Center, while working with breast cancer victims, found these hormone cream products were being sold,” said Carrick, who believes that thousands of women used the product in California.

The settlement, approved by California Superior Court Judge Robert Hess last month, is one of 50 reached to date since the California non-profit filed suit in 2005 against 60-plus companies nationwide that made similar products with hormones. Tahitian Noni settled without admission of guilt.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
Case Number BC344046

Click Here to read the Consent Judgment that TNI has agreed to.

In short, for those who do not wish to read the entire legal agreement. A while ago we reported that the TNI Tahiti Trim Plan 40 cream was a target of lawsuit because of the ingredients being known to cause cancer. It has taken some time but TNI has agreed to pay a settlement sum to the California Women’s Law Center and will put labels on the current and future products that make use of Progesterone, Medroxyprogesterone acetate, Testosterone and its esters, Methyltestosterone, Testosterone cypionate, and/or Testosterone enanthate as an ingredient and will present a warning when people buy these products by direct sales or internet sales;

“WARNING: This product contains [Progesterone, Medroxyprogesterone acetate, Testosterone and its esters, Methyltestosterone, Testosterone cypionate, and/or Testosterone enanthate], a chemical(s) known to the State of California to cause cancer. Consult with your physician before using this product.”

Why are tax opportunities and real-estate being promoted at the London Sales office of Tahitian Noni International? You could ask Liquid Assets UK, Ltd. and What If Consultants about that. If you have been approached by a company called Liquid Assets UK, Ltd. or What If Consultants, you can probably already guess what this article is about. Both these companies hold their meetings on the 24th Floor at Centrepoint, New Oxford St, London. For those unfamiliar with the address, that is the London Sales office of Tahitian Noni International.

What If Consultants regularly invites people to attend their so-called “free” seminars, in which they bombard the audience with ways to enter into the Noni Juice network. They lure people in by pretending that their “free” seminar is to help you claim between 2.000 and 6.000 UK pounds (that’s $4.000 to $12.000) tax back. They call this an “amazing opportunity”. Of course the real goal of these “free” seminars is to get you hooked into the Noni Juice network, sign you up as distributors (IPC’s, Independent Product Consultants)-or, if nothing else, turn you into a believer who will consume the juice and spend hundreds a month for the “pleasure” of ordering cases of smelly putrid tasting juice. They argue that if you enter into their “amazing opportunity,” you will essentially be running your own business and can thus get certain tax breaks. Of course, once you are hooked, you will learn that the opportunity is everything but amazing.

Liquid Assets Uk, Ltd. describes itself as a company that provides “free” seminars “at which you will learn how you can set up a simple income-producing asset using some little-known strategies to your benefit, without changing your current occupation”. It’s a typial MLM and pyramid scheme lure to get people to fall for it. In both cases these “free” seminars are, of course, not presented or explained as associated or involved with Tahitian Noni Juice in any way, and the relation between the so-called “free” information and the juice scam are hidden from plain view to you as an attendee in these meetings.

At their most recent meeting they also had Mr. Ade Shokoya (Adewale Shokoya), from Genie Properties, provide “secrets” about the property market while offering special discounts for various activities. You can see Mr. Adewale Shokoya pictured in between that of Donald Trump and other tycoons (the digital e-book can be licensed, having your “bonus section” added to it, and have it prepared for re-sale, all resulting in the ability to claim one is a licensed co-author alongside people like Donald Trump who’s contribution to the original e-book is granting permission for a reprint of a small part of his own book “Trump, The Art Of The Deal”). In the “bonus content” you will find an article “How to Turn £11,374 Into £125,998 in Less Than 2 Months”.

We will, of course, save you the boring details. Mr. Ade Shokoya has said to be Mentor on the North London “Silver Diamond Programme.” Note that this is NOT this Silver Diamond program! This is a different company that does real-estate, bulk mailing and mailing lists (otherwise known as spam), and they do MLM business opportunities, too. We are not certain what Mr. Shokoya’s involvement is in the Noni business or if there is any. Perhaps they had invited him as a presenter without knowing the controversial nature of Noni Juice and MLM’s. Mr. Shokoya appears also to run shopwithgenie, an online retail shop.

We recommend always being careful when dealing with real-estate because there are a lot of scams out there, often operated by predatory realtors. One of those is called a “1-2-3 construction” which you can find out about with a few online searches. Also, if property investment companies lists things like “If you choose to use your own mortgage broker to arrange a mortgage, make sure they are experienced in handling creative finance techniques transaction.” and “The valuation instructed on a property, by the lender, is not necessarily the open market value. Down-valuations can occur in some instances. This cannot be controlled and you may have to find more money to put into an investment, especially in instances of no-deposit down deals.” then it certainly looks to us as a reason to be cautious.

Anyone who is asked or offered to present at meetings that are intended to promote controversial pyramid schemes with a controversial reputation should always be careful about what it is they are getting associated with. There are organizers out there who couldn’t care less who they inadvertently associate with their MLM recruitment activities.

Isn’t Noni bringing in enough money at this point?

Why is the London office used for all this?

The involvement of these two companies with Tahitian Noni is very clear, though. Liquid Assets UK, Ltd. and What If Consultants are both run by Mr. Nick Menz. Mr. Menz, together with Mr. Nick Holden, both from Australia, have been instrumental in introducing Noni Juice to the UK.

How much of the profits from these activities does the TNI HQ and its directors get, if any? Or doesn’t the corporate HQ of TNI know that these side-businesses are being operated out of their London office? Or does TNI only profit from the new signups into the network and as such allow the side-businesses to bring in new recruits?

Either way, it’s a fishy situation that smells worse than Noni Juice itself.

Has quality control at TNI gone down the drain with quarantined juice spinning out of control and straight into a dumping ground? Recent information that has been provided to us certainly indicates that there are serious quality control problems with the Noni Juice.

UPDATE: MORE INFORMATION AND PICTURES HERE

We all know that Tahitian Noni Juice smells bad and tastes even worse but for many this has been a reason to claim that the worse it is, the better the quality and the more it will cure you. Unfortunately, it is TNI who is in need of a cure to combat the quality control issues that are being reported as causing both significant financial drain and contaminated bottles of juice. With the financial drain putting pressure on TNI it has now become clear that there is an increased risk of having contaminated bottles finding their way down to the consumers.

This contamination has been an ongoing battle for TNI because of the process used to produce the final bottles of Noni Juice that are sold as cure-all miracles. TNI, like many juice producers, prides themselves on their quality control. If that is the case when why is there so much concern over quarantined batches? Before the main component of Noni Juice reaches the bottling plant for processing it is first harvested, which includes both the “fruit” as well as the weeds and plant debris that are contained in barrels for a while where it would probably rot and ferment. Around that time it gets shipped by sea at which point the fermenting noni is enough to make your stomach turn inside out based on stories we have heard who have seen it up close. The heating and flash pasteurization at the processing plant are applied to combat several key problems with potassium levels and yeasts. The contamination with bacteria and microbial side effects are normally dealt with under quality control.

This Quality Control that TNI has always claimed they were proud of must have been been dealt a significant blow with the termination and loss of key employees in charge of QC. These changes, which are a follow-up to the employment termination of Mr. Eldon Pierce, who was previously in control of quality control. As a result QC has been repositioned as a unit under Marketing, which is Mr. Kelly Olsen’s department where the noni juice is now only being tested by random compliance tests which involves testing only a few bottles of juice that pass the quality test and which are subsequently used as a “pass” to ship an entire batch of bottles.

With the termination of employment of those people who were the only line of defense against the nasty mass of rotten compost that is used to create the Noni Juice there is now a higher risk of consumers potentially buying contaminated juice. Not a very healthy situation! We also learned that the quarantined juice products that do not pass quality control are stored in the big warehouse near their bottling plant and that there is a lot of activity there when this quarantined mess is taken away to be dumped and covered up.

Source
So based on what they pay people to do, which companies get the Pyramid Quack award? One gal, Phyllis, a Tahitian Noni rep for years, told the group this:

Typical order: $120 for the Noni juice per month.
Pay for getting a customer (who doesn’t sell it) to buy it: 6%. That’s like $5 for getting a $120 order. (!!) With such puny pay, who’d want to go after customers? They don’t, and haven’t, for years, she said. This pay plan tells it all: We pay you to get recruits - people who sell it. We don’t care about customers who just buy it (and who don’t sell it). So, we were about to bestow upon the Tahitian Noni International pay plan, the Pyramid Quack award.

Then with great pride, she announced to the group: “But Kim, this past year they’ve worked to change it - because I think they heard you. As of May 1, 2006, they are paying 20% for customer orders. So now we get $24 for each of those orders!”

That’s what, 3 days ago? After almost 10 years of being in business.

Source: FSA
Noni de Tahiti Ltd has applied to the Agency sell its noni juice in the under the simplified procedure for approving novel foods. Under the Novel Foods Regulation a novel food is defined as a food that does not have a significant history of being eaten within the European Union before May 1997. Noni de Tahiti Ltd has asked the Food Standards Agency to approve its juice for sale, on the grounds that the company is buying its noni juice from Tahiti Products Inc, which buys its supply from a company that has already had its noni juice product approved.

Regulation (EC) 258/97 makes provision for novel foods or ingredients that are substantially equivalent to an existing product to be placed on the market once the applicant has informed the European Commission. In all cases to date, the Commission has required that the applicant first obtain an opinion on equivalence from a Member State, in this case, the UK.

Over the past several months we’ve been receiving e-mail from TNI IPC’s (Independent Product Consultants, is what TNI calls their dealers and distributors in the pyramid scheme, over which they have little or no control). The dealers claim that TNI has lied to them. However, these lies are not about the claimed miracle healing powers but rather about the financial aspects. Needless to say we’re not at all surprised about that.

Telling a lie and not telling the whole truth are two completely different things when it comes to MLM based companies like TNI. And, as usual, a lot of dealers only start making noises if their income is at stake, as opposed to anything else. The dealers who have written to us claim that TNI has been telling them all along that “we will always cut you in and will never cut you out” when it comes to the recruitment of new victims (new IPC’s, that is). The process as the dealers claim is that people who become a dealer will be assigned a random IPC in the pyramid, based on the IPC account number. However, as it turns out, people can also directly buy retail from TNI and also be a so called “Rewards Member” while doing your monthly ordering of Noni Juice.

The most recent information that has reached us is from another dealer who claims that someone at customer services at TNI has now admitted that if someone signs up without referring to their upline IPC account number, that the company then keeps that for themselves. This of course not being what TNI has always told their dealers and which is making them angry and threatening to depart from the pyramid scheme. The anger is mostly because dealers are not making the money that TNI has always told them they would make with these random IPC assignments. The Noni Watch Team is not at all surprised about any of this. It’s just another scam in the bigger scheme, or scam, of things.

What does TNI dealer Jeremiah Charles (MLM “synergizer” and a bartender and manager of a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida) think about other dealers who raise concerns regarding the products they sell, in particular the use of higly controversial ingredients in TNI’s latest product; the HIRO energy drinks? From his own words it is cear that criticism within the dealer network(s) is to be kept inside the network and never to be mentioned outside of the network, as Mr. Charles puts it; “What I said and repeat is that these comments are to be brought upline. They are not to be spread around a forum such as this. This is just negative idle talk that does nothing but spread like cancer. It only takes one negative person to disrupt the positive vibes of a team.”

This also illustrates the nature of criticism inside the pyramid structure where it is automatically labeled as “negative talk”. Of course, judging the other things Mr. Charles says, the negative talk is only negative because it might impact the bottom line, which according to Jeremiah is; making money and being blind loyal followers of whoever is at the top of the pyramid. Only loyalty counts and blind it must be, or as Mr. Charles puts it; “We are in Network Marketing. Our job is to pick a company we can stand behind and work our business. It is not to nit pick every ingredient that our founders deem appropriate to add to a product.”

As a TNI IPC, Mr. Charles does not stand behind the medical or health claims of the products or those made by other dealers (but will probably accept them to be spread if it makes him more money) and correctly recognizes that; “We are not food scientists nor are we experts in the medical professions”, according to Mr. Charles.

So what does this mean for the health claims made by other dealers? He has a very clear view on that as well, as he writes; “It has occurred to be that there are a lot of people out there who truly do not understand the business we are in. Many think they are in the juice business. We are in Network Marketing. It is our job to build networks of people as a channel of distribution to move the goods and services of our company through“, and to top that off, “There are a great many people out there that are still trying to save the world by baptizing everyone in this juice. Guys, if you are doing that, you are missing the boat, big time”, according to Jeremiah Charles.

His advice regarding TNI and the pyramid scheme is simple and does not involve testimonials and health claims or anything else, it’s very basic and really shows that it is all about; “Build a huge organization and do it as quickly as possible. By doing so, you will move these valuable products en mass by default. Does that make sense? This compensation plan DOES NOT WORK if your people are not using the products”, which shows that you need to get people to use the products and it seems one way of getting people to use the products, be it Tahitian Noni Juice, HIRO (marketed under the name taHiro outside of the US), Goji, Xango, Herbalife, or any other fake miracle in a jar, is to do whatever it takes to get people to use it. In order to… make money!

Be careful if you ever get to deal with this Mr. Jeremiah Charles, though. Before you know it your might end up donating all your other non-MLM products somewhere, or as Mr. Charles does with people he recruits into his little money making scheme in the larger pyramid is; “One of the first things I do with new people after about a month, is go over the catalog with them and bring a big shopping bag over to place all the old stuff they used to buy from a store into so they have room for their Tahitian Noni products. They can donate their old stuff to a shelter or throw them away”.

The other thing Mr. Charles has identified properly is that these miracle products such as Tahitian Noni Juice only work as long as people are willing to use them and BELIEVE in them. There is nothing more harmful to a belief than having that belief weighed, measured, and examined in detail. Raising questions or any sign of criticism (also called “negativity” in those tight MLM communities) might affect others who could for the very first time be using their heads for a change and perhaps think about the questions that get raised. And that could lead to a breakdown of certain false beliefs. As Mr. Charles puts it, “Just remember to stay positive around others on your team and downline and to take upline any negativity. If not, you are on a sure path to destroy your organization by zapping the life and positive energy right out of people. In a sense, an emotional vampire. You can effect others’ teams to in a viral setting line this online forum as well”.

The short version of Mr. Jeremiah “smells like money” Charles’ story is that health is irrelevant, using the products is important, selling them and recruiting new people is even more important, and blind loyalty is demanded. Critical thinking and thinking for yourself appears to be a bad thing and in the end the bottom line is that IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY AND ONLY THE MONEY.

And that’s exactly what our site has been saying all along. Thanks Jeremiah, for this refreshing honesty. We had almost lost hope for TNI IPC’s and dealers but it seems you truly are an honest one. Now if only we could say the same thing about HOW these products are sold.

NONI juice (Morinda citrifolia) is an increasingly popular wellness drink claimed to be beneficial for many illnesses. No overt toxicity has been reported to date. We present two cases of novel hepatotoxicity of NONI juice. Causality of liver injury by NONI juice was asses-sed. Routine laboratory tests and transjugular or percutaneous liver biopsy were performed. The first patient underwent successful liver transplantation while the second patient recovered spontaneously after cessation of NONI juice. A 29-year-old man with previous toxic hepatitis associated with small doses of paracetamol developed sub-acute hepatic failure following consumption of 1.5 L NONI juice over 3 wk necessitating urgent liver transplantation. A 62-year-old woman without evidence of previous liver disease developed an episode of self-limited acute hepatitis following consumption of 2 L NONI juice for over 3 mo. The most likely hepatotoxic components of Morinda citrifolia were anthraquinones. Physicians should be aware of potential hepatotoxicity of NONI juice.

If it wasn’t enough to put the chemical sweetener Sucralose into the HIRO energy drink, TNI has also added Acesulfame K (also known as Acesulfame Potassium or Ace K, or E950) into the mix. This is another artificial sweetener marketed under the names Sunett and Sweet One. Like Splenda and Aspartame, this is a controversial sweetener.

Eva Denes, a TNI distributor from Spain wrote “Not only contains sucralose but also Acesulfame-K.” and “As a nutricionist I cannot recommend it with good conscience“.

Janet Star Hull wrote that “Acesulfame K apparently produced lung tumors, breast tumors, rare types of tumors of other organs (such as the thymus gland), several forms of leukemia and chronic respiratory disease in several rodent studies, even when less than maximum doses were given.” And you can find a lot more of such critical information about Ace K on the internet, medical publications, studies, everywhere.

What is TNI attempting to accomplish with HIRO (marketed under the name taHiro outside of the US), for a company that claims to be on the cutting edge of health supplements? Hoping that many people will buy and consume the HIRO beverage and develop side effects, disease, or illness so that in the second stage of this process the TNI distributors can start recommending Noni Juice as a cure-all?

On Saturday the 25th of Feb, 2007, Dr. Williams (the one who has taken the spot of Neil Solomon after he fell out of grace with TNI) will be in NY to “help” medical professionals and IPC’s in telling them how his regiment of Noni Juice and spasm release (the spasm one gets after discovering the pyramid structure network marketing sales strategies they need to get involved with in order to pay for their noni?) is claimed able to help several specific conditions. We wonder if Dr. Williams will be making any off-limits medical claims in relation to Noni Juice and we’ll have a full report after the event on that. According to the literature put out to promote this event, Dr. Williams presents this as a way for the body to “heal itself”.

It is clear that the goal of all this is to try and sell as much Noni Juice as possible to workers and people in NYC who have been affected by the “WTC Cough” and other respiratory problems. Have these people no shame? Aparantly not.

This, of course, is the same Dr. Richard Williams that recently put out one of his special giberish reports called “What would you do if you or someone you know are worried abotu the Asian bird flu (H5N1)”, in which, you guessed it, Dr. Williams comes up with a recommendation on servings of Tahitian Noni Juice as “nutricional supplementation”.

Well, folks, if you’re scared of aliens from Mars invading our planet, drink noni juice. If you or someone you know are worried about pink elephants raining down from the skies, drink noni juice. That seems to be the “Williams Mantra”.

Source: Switchblade Doctor
“The reason for TNI’s success is hucksterism. TNI uses multi-level marketing (MLM) and relies on networking and word-of-mouth advertising to sell its products, which in Utah means insinuating itself shamelessly into the LDS Church’s ladies’ auxiliary organization. (MLM schemes attract distributors by extracting an initial payment and promising exponential rewards from the work of others recruited lower in the pyramid; unfortunately, the mathematics of MLM schemes ensures that most investors in the bottom layers will lose their investment.) Essentially all of TNI’s evidence in support of Noni Juice is anecdotal of the my-sister-in-law’s-brother-recommends-it variety. The little “research” that has been done on Noni Juice is quasi-scientific at best and unworthy of publication in reputable scientific journals (certainly TNI, at this point, could afford to fund a scientifically tenable study validating the efficacy of its claims)”.

“TNI’s “medical experts,” too, tend to be alternative health practitioners with questionable educational backgrounds (i.e., “naturopathy doctorates,” chiropractic degrees, etc.; folks, these are not legitimate credentials!) or medical doctors with controversial pasts. For example, until recently, TNI’s primary medical spokeperson was Neil Solomon, a once well-respected internist, trained at Johns Hopkins, who took up the Noni Juice cause only after relinquishing his medical license in the wake of a $160 million sexual harassment lawsuit (Solomon admitted to having unethical sexual relationships with 8 female patients).”

Source : Department of Justice
Tahitian Noni International, Inc. has received a notice of violation of the safe drinking water and toxic enforcement act of 1986 (California Health and Safety Code 25249.5 et. seq.) because of their Tahiti Trim Plan 40 Body Balance Cream and regarding Consumer Progesterone, and Testosterone Creams, Gels, and/or Lotion Products. The Carrick Law Group P.C., on behalf of the California Women’s Law Center has served this Notice of Violation to a list of companies that includes Tahitian Noni International, Inc. (see the link above for details).

The Notice is the prerequisite for the California Women’s Law Center to commence legal action to enforce the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enfocement Act of 1986 and on the belief that the violations outlined in the Notice occur in every county and city in California. The California Attorney General and the district attorney of every California county and the city attorney of every California city (with a population over 750.000) have also received this Notice.

The Notice states that in the course of doing business, the Companies, knowingly and intentiolally have exposed, and continues to expose, individuals (especially woman) to the listed chemicals and that no clear and reasonable warning is or has been provided by the Companies to individuals regarding exposure to the listed chemicals or regarding the fact that these are known to the State of California to be a health risk. The state of California lists Progesterone, Medroxyprogesterone acetate, Testosterone and its esters as carcinogens (known to cause cancer) and lists Medroxyprogesterone acetate, Methyltestosterone, Testosterone cypionate and Testosterone enanthate, as reproductive toxins.

Very often we run into evidence that links Mormons and the business practices of Multi Level Marketing, a.k.a. pyramid schemes, to the sales and marketing of Noni Juice using a tightly knit network of people who are skilled in the art of “networking”. We have listed a few articles and various public discussions on the subject. Overall we think it serves as a basis for dealers who treat their Noni sales as if it was a religion, along with all the fanaticism that unfortunately is often associated with the mixing of religion and money.

Source : Bella Online
There’s certainly no clinical, double-blind research done on human subjects published in peer review journals. (All legitimate peer-review scientific journals are listed in the Index Medicus.) And, by the way, being listed in The Physician’s Desk Reference is also paid advertising. But wait! One article on the site was actually printed in a legitimate peer review journal (Cancer Research 61, 5749-5756, August 1, 2001). So, does this mean that it’s peer reviewed research? Nope – just more slick advertising! How do I know? The article footnote reads: “The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.”

How is it possible that a company and its distributors claim to be focussed on natural products (and cures for any illness you can imagine, especially your financial illnesses) yet we have found some products are using SPLENDA® as the artificial sweetener. Dr. Janet Starr Hull wrote “you would just as soon have a pesticide in your food as sucralose because sucralose (Splenda) is a chlorocarbon”. Splenda, like Aspartame, is not something you would like to put into your body.

Isn’t it remarkable how TNI distributors always claim the FDA and other food authorities are trying to block Noni products because it hurts the big pharma and laboratory/engineering/chemical ingredient companies and that the FDA is responsible for allowing poisons to be present in our food, yet when it comes to their own products they don’t seem to mind it’s in there. For example, if you look at the “TAHITIAN NONI® High Protein Drink” and TahitiTrim (Tahiti Trim also known as TTP40, The Plan 40) “Complete Protein Fiber Ingredients” are listing Splenda (Sucralose Sweetener) as one of their ingredients. The company behind Splenda, McNeil Nutritionals, LLC, also lists “Tahitian Noni Trim Complete Shake” as a product using the sweetener. It sure shows how a “health product” company easily uses the kind of laboratory engineered substances that they and their distributors claim are unhealthy and unnatural.

There is an abundance of information available on the internet regarding Splenda. But what is even more surprising is THIS SITE which warns about the dangers of Splenda and how you can’t trust the FDA and goes on to use Dr. Mercola’s comments on the subject. Yet the very same site advertises Tahitian Noni Juice. So on the one hand they are seriously warning you against the dangers of Splenda and the companies that put it in your food and drinks, and on the other hand they are also advertising a product and a company that is using this chlorocarbon in some of their products.

Yes. Mango-Xan, a “liquid dietary supplement”.

Isn’t it funny how Noni and Mangosteen distributors have been battling it out, calling eachother’s products inferior, calling eachother’s businesses a scam. Why stop at a single scam if you can diversify. Mango-Xan is a product by Pure Fruit Technologies, LLC which is a marketing company and a subsidiary of Morinda Holdings in Provo, Utah (333 W. River Park Drive). The driving direction given to get there are; “Exit I-15 in American Fork at Exit #279. Turn Southwest off the Freeway. Take 2nd left (1000 South). Pass Car Dealer. Go through stop sign (after stopping, of course). Take first left on to Bromley Drive. You’ll see the huge white warehouse building with a “Tahitian Noni” sign on the left”.

We have had quite a few angry e-mail messages from Noni distributors who responded to us after we brought up Mango-Xan, saying that TNI would never do such a thing, that it would be bad for business, and that we had posted lies about TNI having a Mangosteen product. Well, don’t believe us, check it out yourself!. If TNI wishes to keep this hidden from its distributors that is their business and they probably have a very good reason not to tell them.

Kelly Olsen from TNI wrote about Pure Fruit Technologies saying “Now, to date, none of these businesses have met the criteria to begin to produce contributions to the 4th bonus pool. They are all fledgling businesses that will take time to develop entirely”, admitting that PFT was part of TNI but without saying what PFT was producing or marketing. It’s not about what a company hides, it’s all about how they hide it that speaks for itself. So if a TNI distributor comes up and says again that Mangosteen is nothing but a scam and Noni is the only real “cure” for your problems you might want to remind them and confront them with these facts.

Source : The Times
There is little mention of it outside Dr Heinicke’s work and the claims made by noni juice producers. A search through a number of research databases failed to find any mention of xeronine. Professor Richard Mithen, the head of Plant Foods for Health Protection at the Institute of Food Research, had not heard of xeronine and could find no scientific papers describing it. Mithen believes, however, that noni juice is a good source of antioxidants, which are known to help protect against cancer. All fruits contain antioxidants and Mithen could see no evidence that noni juice is any better for you than orange juice. Many successful drugs, such as aspirin, quinine and tamoxifen, the breast cancer drug, come from plants, yet so far no noni-based drugs have been identified.

Source : Australia
Victorian based Internet trader Mr Michael Desveaux will provide refunds to consumers who bought products via his website, Transformation 2012, based on false or misleading representations. This included Noni Juice listed as ” Increases energy, assists the functioning of the digestive tract, enhances sleep, assists in controlling moods and curing cancer and diabetes.”

“But perhaps the most memorable example of a network marketing stampede is noni juice, a once totally obscure Polynesian fruit that became the basis of a huge industry.” and “This is the sort of performance that makes get-rich-quick artists drool”. “The mangosteen phenomenon is a reprise of the aloe vera, gingko biloba, and especially the noni juice story, complete with exaggerated claims for the health benefits of an exotic fruit. It should come as no surprise that both the President and the Chief Financial Officer of Xango once worked for Morinda (now called Tahitian Noni International)”.

In this Forbes Magazine article some insights are provided into the business of Tahitian Noni International, Inc. The article concludes “TNI, though, doesn’t need to make unprovable claims to thrive. Nor is there any law against buying fruit juice that smells like blue cheese, if that’s what people want to do with their money.” and “Between the noni plantations on Polynesian islands like Raiatea and Huahine and the American Fork, Utah bottling plant lies a lot of gross margin; an estimated $2 worth of fruit goes into each bottle.”

The Food and Drug Administration conducted a May 2002 inspection of Fresh Vitamins, a manufacturer of Noni Fresh Juice. Fresh Vitamins marketed its product to treat conditions ranging from immune system disorders to arthritis, malaria, and alcohol addiction. Following the inspection, the firm’s president stated that he had removed impermissible claims from the firm’s Web site and that he was educating himself on FDA policy regarding dietary supplement claims.

Source : Quack Watch
Attorneys General of Arizona, California, New Jersey, and Texas announced a multi-state settlement with Morinda, Inc., a multilevel company headquartered in Linden, Utah. The states had charged that Morinda had made unsubstantiated claims in consumer testimonials and other promotional material that its “Tahitian Noni” juice could treat, cure or prevent numerous diseases, including diabetes, depression, hemorrhoids and arthritis. Such claims rendered the beverage an unapproved new drug under state and federal food and drug laws and should not have been sold until it received approval.

Source : Ireland
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has warned consumers that any health or medical claims appearing on products containing noni juice extracted from the fruit Morinda citrofolia - are totally unsubstantiated. Noni juice was declared safe for human consumption in the EU in 2003 by the EU Scientific Commitee on Food (SCF), but with the provison that there were no accompanying health claims.

Morinda, Inc. (now called Tahitian Noni International, Inc.) had claimed that its product can stimulate the growth of T-cells and restore immune function. The company makes similar claims of cures for diabetes, cancer, depression and a list of other diseases….. and they had to pay the legal price of those unproven claims.

The New England Skeptical Society has an article on Noni fruit juice that targets a few key issues such as the Reliance upon testimonials rather than clinical research, The vague use of the term “natural” that conveys a mystical belief in its virtue, The basis of special knowledge, Vague references to scientific research coupled with unsubstantiated interpretations or extrapolations from basic science, exaggerated health claims, and of course Multi-level marketing.

Utah County, home of Morinda/TNI has the highest density of MLM’s (PDF)

“At the Economic Crimes Summit Conferences in 2002 and 2004 (sponsored by the National White Collar Crime Center), recruiting MLM’s such as Nu Skin, Neways, Morinda, Usana, Melaleuca, Nikken, and Amway/Quixtar (all of which depend on aggressive recruitment for their growth and with pay plans that indirectly reward recruitment over direct sales of products), were among companies presented as examples of product-based pyramid schemes. These are gradually coming to be recognized as a growing class of white collar crime “ i.e., fraud committed by otherwise respectable people. In fact, Utah leads the nation in concentration of recruiting MLM’s “ many headed up by Latter-day Saints!”. (Commonly referred to as Mormons). We found the PDF to present a very interesting subject that we have been detecting as a pattern; mormons and Noni and MLM pyramid schemes appear to go hand in hand. The PDF also contains a chapter titled ” How could well-meaning Latter-day Saints initiate and promote MLM programs that deceive and exploit people?.

A participant on an internet forum has the following to say in relation to the claims made in the above PDF;

“Also, all the witness I know have joined the Mormons in selling a product called Tahitian Noni juice. That’s right, the Witness’s and the Mormon’s. WOW. Together in multilevel (pyramid) marketing of a “miracle cure-all”. I remember a time when the witnesses took great pride in stating how “non-worldly” they were. Can it get anymore worldly than doing multilevel marketing with maybe the nations most capitalistic/worldly/conservative/pro America religious organization, the Mormons! I remember when a Witness’s despise of the Mormon’s could only be compared to their despise of the Catholic’s. I have seen my wife laugh Mormon’s off our property when they showed up at our door during their service endeavors. Now they all get together in Orem, Utah at Morinda world headquarters for sales convention’s, etc. I would love to see one of those convention’s. I wonder if the Mormon’s start the convention with a Pledge of Allegiance or by playing the National Anthem just to drive the Witness’s crazy. A couple Mormon’s own the corporation, therefore, the Witness’s are working for them. Helping them finance the Mormon religion.”

If you were to search for Noni Juice, Noni Scam, or other combinations of words involving Noni you will find dozens upon dozens of free domains, web space providers, and web referrers which are all aimed at guiding you to the Noni online shops. No self-respecting distributor would need to resort to this if their product was worth anything nor would they have to resort to such actions if there weren’t so many neutral and factual sites that present information on this “miracle cure” snake-oil. It appears that distributors have made themselves untrustworthy by resorting to these search-engine result pollution activities.

Here is a small selection of more of the same; Another warning notice (PDF) with much of the same in terms of unsubstantiated wild claims. And another warning (PDF) regarding disease claims and curative properties of Noni-Juice. And if you still haven’t seen enough unsubstantiated and unproven claims made by people with a financial interest here’s another warning (PDF), this time regarding claims of the natural CURE for illness.

It has been brought to our attention that a company called C & S Forster has been circulating e-mail messages to unknown quantaties of random individuals. Their unsollicited e-mails (better known as SPAM) contains a link to our website (noni.worldwidewarning.net) and implies that our website is associated with them and their business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Clive and Stuart Forster are Herbalife distributors (another MLM known for running scams using unethical and huckstering distributors) and in their SPAM messages they are trying to convince Tahitian Noni distributors to switch over to the products and so-called opportunities that they offer via their SPAM.

After approaching the company we were told by Mr. C. Forster, “In our defence we purchased 100 names from a company called Netcast Innovations Ltd who told us, on good authority, that Noni were in trouble and we could use names of people who had opted in for more information on the problems. They then sent us the following e-mail to send out to all the names. We were told we should send the e-mail as they had written it and we would receive a number of distributors from them. We are truly sorry and we have learnt from a very big mistake and we will never trust another company like Netcast Innovations Ltd. I think you should know that Netcast are using your website to try and get other Herbalife Distributors to purchase names from them. (I have also included a copy of the e-mail we received from them using your details and another websites details to attract idiots like ourselves who fall for the sales banter).”

As of 8 Feb. 2006 similar SPAM messages are now being sent by Angus Macdonald [angusmacdonald@usana.com]. The text of their SPAM in certain areas is identical to that of the one sent by Forster and leads us to believe that it too may have come from, or is a duplicate of the efforts of, NETCAST INNOVATIONS LTD. We, at noni.worldwidewarning.net, have nothing to do with Usana (yet another MLM company with huckstering and scamming distributors in a pyramidal structure) and in fact we rate them along the same lines as TNI and others we mention here on the website as you can see for yourself.

We have nothing but contempt for the way SPAMMERS like these, do business, similar to the contempt we have for any business that needs to resort to sending out unsollicited e-mail using an implied association that does not exist. Tahitian Noni distributors should feel free to direct all their profanity filled e-mails at the individuals or business that send out these SPAM MESSAGES instead of us, thank you!

Since there is not much point in contacting an MLM’s like Herbalife and Usana, given how their distributors are considered independent businesses and seeing as how NETCAST INNOVATIONS LTD have no regard for ethics in business, as their unsollicited e-mail action shows, we only have this to communicate to those who wish to use databases of e-mail address while sending out material containing our website, without our prior permission; Kindly refrain from any further use of our website to imply any association with us. Continue to do so and you will only inspire us to create a website, similar to this one, highlighting all the negative aspects and facts about YOUR PRODUCTS and BUSINESS. We are certain that companies like Herbalife and Usana will not be too pleased with that but will understand that you, the senders of these e-mails, are ultimately responsible for doing harm to the company you are distributing for.

A lot of concern exists under TNI distributors regarding the possibility of TNI going public and changing their business model. The real question is who the interested parties were who interested in buying the company and launching an IPO and why have they backed out. Could it be that the accounting is a mess and the books perhaps are cooked?

Floyd Holdman (the man who defeated financial cancer by selling noni juice to people with real cancer) writes; “It is not possible for TNI to continue to do business in many markets under their Chapter 1 business model. TNI cannot continue to lose money in any market.” and has elaborated on the TNI’s reorganization and preparation for Chapter 2 like how the vested stock option pool of 33 million shares would only allow for 5 percent (1.6 million) shares to be routed as the new bonus pool (for Black Pearls, Club Marquises and Global Executives).

The reason Floyd specifies for going public appears to be mainly for the expansion of capital, something that TNI seems to be suffering from as they come under more scrutiny. The fourth bonus pool attached to Access Marketing, however, is said “to remain in place and activated as soon as there are profits to share“. So if there are no profits to share it’s too bad for all those who got sucked into the noni myth.

Floyd also remarks that TNI originally intended to have 5 legs to direct the company but only ending up with 3 and that TNI has not sponsored any additional leg since June 1996 to fill up the two missing legs, and how during the period 1998-2003 multiple positions were discontinued, placement tightened, and Case Autoship changed to conditional and unconditional. Interesting to note is that Floyd claims that while Chapter 1 took TNI global, the business model is too restrictive to do business globally. As a result TNI’s strategic objective is to focus on the top 12 markets with URGENT focus on the top 5. What Floyd fails to mention is what the basis of this urgency is about.

Source : New Zealand
Highly regarded nutritionist Rosemary Stanton says her main concern is that while the fad juices such as noni and goji may have genuine health benefits, they have not been the subject of scientific trials on humans and are sold at such enormous prices that people are convinced they must be good for you. Another huge concern is that if people believe their ailments can be fixed by a very expensive juice, they may delay getting effective medical treatment. “It becomes almost a religious belief in the product,” she says. “I don’t have any doubt that some people take these products and suddenly feel better. The placebo effect is very strong.” Stanton has written about the marketing of noni and goji juice for the weekly journal Australian Doctor, noting the wild health claims made about them. She went through all the so-called scientific studies cited by the main websites and found that even negative coverage in a medical journal was counted by sellers as “scientific backing”.

Marc Cohen, Professor of Complementary Medicine at RMIT University and president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association, says the idea of the “exotic” plays a big part in the attraction of untested juices such as noni and goji. “There is a perception that because it’s exotic and has mysterious origins it must be better for you”. The problem with multi-level is that while Australian authorities such as Food Standards Australia New Zealand and the ACCC can prosecute Australian website marketers, sales are often carried out by linking to a foreign website, where the more outrageous claims may go unfettered.

Source : Bavaria Radio 5
On the 22nd of Jan 2006 BR5 (Bavaria Radio Station 5) talked about Noni being nonsense and that it doesn’t cure anything, as has also been confirmed by the European Union official food laboratories in Germany. The original article can be found on the link above. Following is a short transcription of its content into English.

Noni Juice has been praised as a cure-all for arthritis, high blood pressure, and even cancer. However, the EU food authority (EU-Lebensmittelkommission) has found absolutely no evidence of these health claims or any functional aspect of the juice. If you wish to feel healthy by drinking a juice, you can just as well drink orange-juice or apple-juice. Since 2003 Noni Juice has been allowed on the market as a food supplement. The pushy sales tactics of some of the dealers involved in this “Multi Level Marketing” scheme can be compared with a snowball effect in expanding sales in Germany. On many internet forums/chatrooms you will regularly find recommendations made by enthousiastic Noni Juice drinkers, who shortly thereafter expose and acknowledge themselves being dealers and sales people of the juice.

Vera Landner of the Lebensmittelchemikerin des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit (LGL) said “In no case is Noni Juice better than orange-juice or apple-juice or any other fruit juice. We have measured the concentrations of vitamins and minerals, including anti-oxidants, and they all fall within similar ranges at which point any proclaimed beneficial health improvements can not be attributed”.

Liver damage because of Noni? Noni Juice is quite expensive, a price for a liter being a little over 50 Euros are no exception. The LGL has tested 15 Noni Juice products from different manufacturers and concludes that many of the products, contrary to the claims made by manufacturers, often only contain about 20 percent of pure noni juice and that the rest is mainly water. And so many of the expensive noni juices from the South Pacific can even cause damage to the liver. “We have learned from Austria that acute hepatitis has been linked to the drinking of Noni but that further study is needed for any further conclusions”, according to Vera Landner of the LGL.

Source : Herald Extra

Financial and resource troubles?

Tahitian Noni International laid off, fired, canned, dumped, 153 employees in Provo and American Fork. This includes staff from training and support, call centers, marketing, and lower executive management such as managing directors. While it is made to sound as if TNI took care of the staff they have laid off, reports are reaching us that this is either not the case or is not the case for all individuals that have been booted out the door such as one of their former key figures.

For a company that has recently reported that they had the highest earnings since its inception, this sure looks like typical obfuscation to hide a probably far worse position since its inception. The article mentions a lower number but when inquiring with TNI directly the figure of 153 is repeated. This news, combined with the news of TNI settling their three-year legal dispute with Xango, and the financial pressure of other consecutive lawsuits and legal troubles (such as over their Plan 40 Cream), combined with UK based Ponzi schemes, are clear indications that financial strain has entered the world of Tahitian Noni.

The FDA sent out an official warning letter to a retailer who made claims about Noni Juice that included that “Noni has been used to treat Diabetes,… Asthma, Cataracts, Colds, High Blood Pressure,… Breast Cancer, Depression, Migraine,… Stroke, Tumors, Infections, Gastric Ulcers,… Prostate Cancer,… Cancer,… Arthritis,… Chest Infections, … “