Quixtar's Mohr Could Have Avoided it All!

My neighbor returned today Dick with his copies of 3 days of transcripts from Quixtar’s attempt to find Orrin Woodward and/or the Team in contempt of Judge Sullivan’s order. He was right about them being interesting reading and they look to be official. He wouldn’t reveal how he got them, but he was fairly beaming when he came in for tea.

Not being a stranger to blogging myself, and not being content to wait for his return today, I took the opportunity this morning to review some of the material that’s out there. What I found was disturbing. For example, on the IBO Rebellion site, I found the following: “My CWPF's (close warm personal friends) are telling me that the damage to Quixtar, both directly and collaterally, from the ongoing battle with TEAM is mounting quickly. The losses at Quixtar are piling up at a rate that could total more than 125 million dollars by the end of the fiscal year.”

While CWPF is obviously tongue-in-cheek wordplay, might the $125 million dollar loss be accurate? Are there plans for layoffs and early retirements because of “overcapacity”?

If so Dick, you can bet that some of the folks your executives find redundant will talk, even though your street toughs, sorry, Legal Staff, will no doubt threaten to sever any retirement or layoff moneys if they do. Be sure that any linen they soil will find the light of day. I believe it’s in the Bible, Numbers 32:23: “...and be sure your sin will find you out.” Are you willing to take that chance?

Let assume you do lose $125 million this year, and that most of it is attributable to Mike Mohr. I did have to consider what the IBO Rebellion author said about Peyton Manning. Now if Mr. Manning is paid $14 million a year, because he makes a lot more money than that for his owners, what are you paying Mr. Mohr for helping you lose $125 million when he could have avoided the entire mess you’ll have to clean up?

My friend weighed in that he was also aware of some of these sites, and directed my attention to them.

Let’s examine the facts Dick, and you can on several posts: QSSR, the Barrister blog (which moved) and Ron Simmons Speaks from which we saw this: “The truth of the matter is that when this lawsuit was given to Q’s lawyers on August 9th (hours before it was filed) the intent was for them to read the complaint and then agree to a “stand still” (a period where nothing happens and discussions are held between the parties regarding the items raised in the complaint) so that discussions could continue.

However, a Q lawyer called Billy Florence and told him to go ahead “do what he had to do” and that they were not interested in further discussions. This response by Q forced the hand of Orrin et al and they either had to file the suit or walk away after being terminated without notice or any amount of legitimate (my opinion) due process. Late afternoon on August 9th the suit was filed in California asking the court to declare the Quixtar IBO contract unenforceable. I know for a fact that it was not the desire of these IBO leaders to file suit against Quixtar, unfortunately once the ball started rolling down the hill it was almost impossible to stop.” (italics mine)

Mr. Simmons and other men (Woodward, Brady, Haugen, McCormick and Quixtar’s own Todd Krause) who also attended the infamous August 9 meeting have publically said the same thing on posts and in court documents. MIKE MOHR COULD HAVE AVOIDED EVERYTHING THAT HAS RECENTLY HAPPENED TO YOUR ONCE DECENT COMPANY.

Dick, even the average person can follow the thought process.

As my dear friend so succinctly put it after we reviewed these posts together: “Look Sam, here is the offer Mike Mohr made to Woodward and Brady when he returned to the room on August 9th:

‘Look guys, we really appreciate the fact that you spent 15 years of your lives and invested an incredible amount of money and time and effort into building a good business – and it is, but not for you! See, you made waves by speaking the truth in Board meetings and we don’t like that. So here’s the deal. You can; 1) just walk away from everything you’ve built (we’ll take it) and say nothing or we’ll sue you for everything you’ve got or, 2) whether you go quietly or not, if any of your group is loyal to you and they quit us for treating you like dirt, we’ll sue you for everything you got. How’s that sound?’

“How would YOU have responded Sam?” he asked. “And to think, all Mohr had to do was work out a way to let them leave, just like Nutrilite let Rich and Jay leave almost 50 years ago. But remember Sam, Nutrilite was honorable. Maybe not perfect, but at least they were honorable in how they treated Rich DeVos and Jay VanAndel. If Nutrilite had treated Rich and Jay like DeVos is treating Woodward and Brady, there wouldn’t be an Amway to laugh at today!”

He continued, “Sam, please ask Mr. DeVos if having Mike Mohr as his General Counsel is worth losing $125 million dollars and jepordizing his future career as a public servant.” He wouldn’t stop.

“Tell him for me that I completely understand having incompetent marketing people like Todd Krause and incompetent executives (he said the word ‘executives’ with a sneer) like Jim Payne and Rob Davidson. The IBO world has come to expect incompetence from THEM and they have for years! Just ask some of the IBOs who attended an official Quixtar ‘Achievers’ conference several years ago what they thought of the ‘Fit Fairy’. Incompetence is par for the course with this band of bungling boneheads!”

He hesitated, but before I could compliment him on that alliteration, he solemnly finished his monologue. “But Sam, ask Dick how in the WORLD he could have put such an artless oaf like Mike Mohr in the position of General Counsel. That’s a position which requires a person of intelligence and grace to be effective. Mohr clearly does not possess either quality.”

Then he let the hammer fall. “Sam” he said, “you have to admit that only two scenarios make sense. One, that the DeVos’s are incompetent themselves for allowing this to happen and that disqualifies Dick from running a Government many times the size of Alticor, or two, that in the time period between Mohr leaving that room on August 9th and returning with Woodward and Brady’s termination papers, he talked to Dick or Rich and got the marching order to bury those men. And that’s what I think happened Sam, because I don’t think the DeVos’s are incompetent. And to think the DeVos’s call themselves Christians!!!”

Before I could object, he continued. “No other possibility exists and the truth will come out in court. Think about it Sam! Why would several, how many is it, seven or eight, perfectly reasonable and intelligent men WANT to sue a $7 billion dollar company? They wouldn’t UNLESS that company put them in an untenable position and they had to fight for their lives!”

There was more Dick, but I had to run off to an appointment. I had to admit, he had a very good point. I’ll be back to you soon but I pray that you stop this now. No good can come to you with your executives testifying on the public record. One of them might crack.