A major beauty MLM company filed a lawsuit days before New Year's 2017 to stop three of its own leaders from defecting to a rival with what it claims amounts to stolen customer lists and broken contracts.

Nerium International came swinging on December 30th, 2016, naming Doug Burdick, Don Creek, and Anna Woodward as defendants alongside their new employer, Modere. The fight centers on a coordinated recruitment blitz that Nerium alleges was designed to poach its salesforce wholesale before the calendar flipped to 2017.

Creek and Woodward had been Nerium Brand Partners. Burdick was a paid consultant. When they flipped to Modere—a competing personal care network marketing outfit—Nerium claimed they took something more valuable than just their own business: confidential contact information for over 100,000 Brand Partners, plus deep knowledge of how Nerium's operation works.

The evidence in Nerium's filing paints a picture of aggressive poaching. Modere and the three defendants allegedly bankrolled the recruitment campaign with all-expense trips to Utah, cash bonuses, and other sweeteners designed to lure Nerium's top earners away. They used Nerium's own confidential distributor lists to make personalized pitches to the salesforce, Nerium claimed.

Jen Cromling received a call on December 26th from Don Creek, someone above her in the Nerium hierarchy. Creek told her "everything is falling apart" at Nerium and said he was leaving for Modere. The pitch was timed deliberately—just days before a planned public announcement scheduled for December 31st that would trumpet the trio's departure to the entire organization.

Nerium saw the writing on the wall. If three respected insiders announced their exit together, the company feared a stampede. Nerium moved fast, filing suit and requesting a Temporary Restraining Order to stop the announcement and the coordinated exodus before it could start.

The complaint reads like an accusation of deliberate sabotage. Nerium's lawyers argued that Modere was essentially admitting it couldn't compete on product quality or merit. Instead of building its own salesforce, Modere allegedly took the shortcut: rent some Nerium defectors, give them money and incentives, and let them harvest Nerium's own customer base.

According to Nerium's filing, Burdick joined as a consultant in September 2015. Creek and Woodward, the company stated, came on in May 2016—though Woodward later clarified she'd actually joined back in April 2012, making her a veteran of the organization.

The lawsuit hinged on basic contract law. Creek, Woodward, and Burdick had all signed non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. Nerium wanted to stop them from using confidential information to recruit their former colleagues. The TRO aimed to freeze the situation and keep the announcement under wraps until the case could be decided.

What the court ultimately ruled remains unclear from the available record, but the case illustrates the ruthless economics of MLM competition. For Nerium, the real damage wasn't the loss of three people—it was the threat that those three could take 100,000 distributors and their customer networks with them.

🤖 Quick Answer

What was the nature of the lawsuit filed by Nerium International in December 2016?
Nerium International filed a lawsuit against three of its executives—Doug Burdick, Don Creek, and Anna Woodward—and their new employer Modere, alleging corporate sabotage. The company claimed the defendants orchestrated a coordinated recruitment campaign to poach its salesforce and unlawfully transferred confidential customer contact information to the competing network marketing company.

Who were the defendants named in the Nerium lawsuit?
The defendants included Doug Burdick, a paid consultant; Don Creek and Anna Woodward, both former Nerium Brand Partners. All three had transitioned to Modere, a rival personal care network marketing company, prompting Nerium to pursue legal action for alleged breach of contract and misappropriation of proprietary information.

**What allegations did Nerium make against the defendants?

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