My Response to Paul Pilzer's Invitation to Meet With Amway Vice President


FROM: Sidney Schwartz, 72437,2263
TO: "Paul Zane Pilzer"
CC: Ken McDonald
DATE: 12/2/96 6:10PM

Re: Copy of: Your Kind Invitation

Paul,

I hope you'll accept my apologies for taking so long to get back to you regarding your invitation to meet with Ken McDonald and you. After much consideration, I've decided to decline, with thanks. The following factors played an important part in my decision.

1. As you know, I've been in contact with, and have shared information with, a number of individuals and organizations who have either filed suit against Amway or are in the process of doing so. As these people have spoken with me in confidence, I feel it would be inappropriate for me to meet with a defendant in these lawsuit for the purpose of informal discussion. No matter how careful I might be not to divulge any confidential information, there is always the possibility that I might unwittingly do so, and in doing so jeopardize the plaintiff's cases. This would be grossly unfair to them.

2. While I'm sure Mr. MacDonald is sincere in his desire (expressed through you) to address the long-standing problems that are facing Amway, I frankly cannot see how my meeting with him will be helpful in this regard. I have no doubt that whatever information I have gathered and published on my web site is a drop in the bucket compared to what Amway Corp. must have in its own files. The number of complaints submitted to Amway Corp. over the years by distributors my be staggering, and we can only guess at the number of distributor lawsuits that have been filed; hundreds, if not thousands. We know from the "Directly Speaking" tapes and internal Amway memos that Amway has long been aware of very single problem--and then some--that I address on my web site. What could I possibly add that would compel Amway to take proper action when they have consistently failed to do so for so long a time?

I hope my decision has not caused offense to either you or Mr. MacDonald; I assure you it was not meant to.

Respectfully,

Sidney Schwartz