Slander \Slan"der\, n.
1. A false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation
of another; the malicious utterance of defamatory reports; the dissemination
of malicious tales or suggestions to the injury of another.
Libel \Li"bel\, v. t.
1. To defame, or expose to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, by a writing,
picture, sign, etc.; to lampoon.
The Truth About Suddenly Slender and VMM, Inc.
Lies, misinformation, slander and libel are all terms that are appropriate in describing the covert actions that have recently been taken against Suddenly Slender Franchising USA, LLC, VMM Inc., and Pyramid Consulting, LLC.
A small group of former and current Business Opportunity License holders have organized and are making a conscious effort to defame Victoria Morton’s companies. It is unclear what their true motivations are, although one can make a strong assumption that their ultimate goal is a full-scale corporate coup. If this group TRULY had grievances, they would have taken Victoria Morton’s companies to court. They did not. It was VMM, Inc. that took some of THEM to trial, because it was found that the group was making attempts to sell Business Opportunity Licenses of their own, under the Suddenly Slender, ErvaSlim, and later “Suddenly Slimmer” names.
Suddenly Slender has been very gracious throughout all of these proceedings, and has not released names or details in an effort to maintain a professional posture, and to keep the vast majority of happy, successful License Holders and Franchisees from being caught up in the storm. Our modus operandi has always been to clear up any rare misunderstandings through communication. This has not worked in this situation. The time for niceties has passed, and Suddenly Slender is now forced to take an aggressive stance to stop the harm that this unethical covert group is trying to cause. Suddenly Slender and Victoria Morton feel an obligation to protect those who have helped to build the amazing brand, and continue to make it prosper, and will no longer tolerate propagation of defamatory comments and misinformation. There is an old western music song that says "if you don't stop telling lies about me, I'm going to tell the truth about you!" So here it is.
Evidence of a malicious splinter group began to circulate in 2003, when it was discovered that “partners” Afsi Niam, manager of a California Suddenly Slender License and Pat Benchouchan, owner of the California Suddenly Slender License, had illegally sold a Business Opportunity License in 2003, using the Suddenly Slender solution and methods. Later they came up with a much simpler solution based upon a weak epsom salts solution. These two were later joined by Andrea Pekarik-Welch, a Suddenly Slender trainer for VMM for about 2 years. The basic plan of this group came to Suddenly Slender in the form of an incriminating e-mail, from Pat Benchouchan to Andrea Pekarik-Welch, which was accidentally sent to a License prospect of ours who forwarded it to Victoria, which reads:
“… I think is time to go for it. Here is a list of people that are interested in the business, some more serious than others, but I think all of them should be contacted personally by Stella (we found out later that "Stella was the code name for Andrea Pekarik-Welch) and let them know that VERY soon ErvaSlim will be able to sell licenses and you can mention the prices (around, not exactly) and keep them interested. That’s the beginning. Good luck and let me know what is going on please. Also, I think it is better to contact them by phone at this point if possible so it is no official records, nothing in writing at this point. Just email them and ask for a phone number so you could talk to them.
thank’s a lot
pat”
It was soon discovered that Michael Welch, Andrea's husband and a Suddenly Slender Licensee, had also been busy. He registered the domain names “suddenlyslenderfranchise.com”, and “suddenlyslenderfranchises.com”, as well as about a dozen others that referred to body wrapping. At this point, Suddenly Slender entered into mediation with Michael Welch ( a Business Opportunity License holder) for breach of contract and conspiring to sell business licenses illegally. The mediator ruled that Michael Welch and all associates should immediately cease all actions related to selling licenses, stay out of the body wrap business for 2 years and have no contact with the other Licensees and send them all a final letter to that effect, they were also ordered to surrender the domain names Michael Welch had registered that infringed upon the Suddenly Slender copyrighted name and any domain names that referred to body wrapping. He also agreed that his wife, Andrea would cease sending her defaming emails to the other Licensees.
Although this Mediation helped to stop the pending sales of illegal business licenses, Michael Welch did not fully comply. knowing he was defeated, he “passed the torch” to another person: Shelley Reilly.
Shelley Reilly is the owner of Body Wraps Plus in Ft. Worth Texas, and still a Business Opportunity License holder. She opted to leave the Suddenly Slender family based on a belief that “her way was better”. She essentially still uses many aspects of the Suddenly Slender System, but with radically different formulas that have, to date, not been tested or approved by any governing agency. She egregiously violated multiple Non-Compete and Non-Disclose clauses from her License Agreement, and is a self-proclaimed religious bigot. Her personal financial history is shady at best, somehow being listed as a filer of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy TWICE in one year. Her litigious nature is obvious, as she has filed many suits against many entities, including the landlord of her house. The IRS has filed suit against Shelly Reilly, and eventually imposed a Federal tax lien. Shelly Reilly was the perfect candidate to pick up the dirty work of Michael Welch’s group.
Armed with an illegally transferred domain name, suddenlyslenderfranchise.com, care of Michael Welch, Shelley Reilly went to work building a slanderous website that was complete with religious slurs and links to religious hate groups, all tying into Suddenly Slender and Victoria Morton.
Suddenly Slender quickly assembled a counter-site, at www.suddenlyslenderfranchising.com , and loaded it with truthful content that completely invalidates Shelley Reilly’s lies and libel. As of this statement, Suddenly Slender is officially in the process of filing suit against Shelley Reilly for breach of contract as well as slander and libel. The legal term for what she is doing is 'Litigious Interference', which is an attempt to harm or destroy a company with damaging and untrue allegations and is a Federal crime.
Suddenly Slender did an Arbitration with Pat Benchouchan and Afsi Naim, Andrea's acknowledged partners, with the result that the Arbitrator found that the Licensee, Pat Benchouchan had breached her agreement with Suddenly Slender and that she had intended to breach her agreement.
Suddenly Slender is a company founded upon strong values of honesty, integrity, and ethical practices. Victoria Morton is endlessly seeking safe, natural ways to improve the quality of life for anyone who wishes for it. She has done this for almost 40 years. Suddenly Slender regrets that criminal behavior by a very small group of ethically-challenged people has led to such actions as legal action and official rebuttals, but feels that it would do more harm to say nothing any longer. Suddenly Slender just wants to get the truth out there.
Suddenly Slender is here to answer any questions that anyone may have in regards to these incidents.
Please feel free to call 1-800-221-6793 to reach us.
