Mark Yarnell is the founder of 21st Century Global Network LLC, a new (in 1997) multi-level marketing company that is partnering with ATG (American Technologies Group) and IHI (Integral Health, Inc.) to market products based on ``IE crystals''. A number of MLMers who've looked at our ATG web site have written to us asking about this venture. Here we present the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions.
This FAQ concern's Mark Yarnell's activities in 1997-1998. It is preserved for the historical record, although I'm sure he'd like people to forget about this fiasco.
A: We believe, based on the evidence we've examined so far, that IE crystals are a delusion. They don't exist; they're the modern equivalent of "magic fairy dust". They appear to have been "discovered" through shoddy science done without proper controls or replication. As evidence of this, when the Oregon attorney general's office sent samples of supposed "IE crystals" obtained from ATG to an independent lab for analysis, the lab reported that the samples gave the same readings as ordinary tap water, and that the pictures of "crystals" that ATG supplied looked like common bacteria. ATG paid $20,000 to settle fraud charges in Oregon, although they still do not admit any liability.
Even if you don't understand the details of scientific tests like transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy, common sense should tell you that the claims being made for these crystals are too wild to be true. If IE crystals really could clean your laundry, make your car run more efficiently, unclog your drain, moisturize your face, and improve the efficacy of medications, then Shui-Yin Lo would be on the front page of the New York Times collecting his Nobel Prize, not toiling in obscurity in some little two-bit company in Monrovia, California.
A: Considering that he comes from Nu Skin, whose entire business is built around hyping products based on unproven biomedical claims, this doesn't seem out of character at all. Nu Skin has been hit with fines for their claims several times by the FTC, as documented on our ATG web site. But with this new arrangement, Yarnell doesn't have to make any claims himself; he can just point to ATG as his "scientific authority" and link directly to ATG's own nonsense about IE crystals. If you check out the 21st Century web site at www.globalnetworkmlm.com, you'll see that's exactly what he's doing.
A: When IE crystals are publicly recognized as a fraud, you will be left hawking overpriced but otherwise ordinary toilet bowl cleaner, drain unclogger, and face cream. Have fun competing with the Walmart and Amway folks.
A: Mark Yarnell has a moral obligation to his distributors to conduct due diligence with respect to ATG and their claimed IE crystal "technology". Until he provides confirmation from recognized, indepdendent testing laboratories that IE crystals actually exist and have the incredible properties claimed for them, his distributors are all proceeding on blind faith.
A: Ask Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Jones, Peter Popoff, or any of the other con artists running around with bibles in their hands. (Except Jim Jones, who drank some bad KoolAid and is no longer with us.)
Mark's ex-wife Rene Reid Yarnell discusses his drug and alcohol addictions in her book 'Til Death Do Us Part. She also tells how his 21st Century misadventure left them deeply in debt. So much for his public claims of incredible wealth.
A: The MLM Truth newsletter says the compensation plan is no good. And an experienced network marketer says Yarnell's reputation is not nearly as good as he thinks it is. He faults Yarnell for allegedly doing nothing to help his Nu Skin distributors when they were getting reamed by the company.
A: Our claims are backed up with documentation, and our opinions are clearly marked as such. There are no grounds for a lawsuit here. ATG's one try at intimidating Mark Dallara with legal threats blew up in their faces.