On January 18th Wakaya Perfection filed their answer to Youngevity’s lawsuit.
For the most part the company denies the claims laid out against it.
Individuals identified herein and other distributors of Wakaya’s products neither are agents of Wakaya nor speak for or on behalf of Wakaya, that Wakaya’s compensation plan speaks for itself, and that the statements selectively quoted herein have been taken out of context and given a self-serving characterization by Youngevity.
That much was expected. What’s particularly interesting though are the allegations that follow in Wakaya’s counterclaim.
In their counter-claim, Wakaya go ham on the victim card and portray Youngevity as a spiteful company.
Rather than accept responsibility for their own misdeeds, (Youngevity, its) board members (and) the founder of the company … engaged in a concerted campaign to destroy Wakaya in its infancy.
Acting out of personal spite and without any legal justification, (Youngevity) threatened any Youngevity distributor who expressed an interest in working with Wakaya, either in addition to or instead of working for Youngevity.
On information and belief, (Youngevity’s) goal was to prevent Smith from successfully launching Wakaya and to punish Smith for his perceived disloyalty to Youngevity—a disloyalty that existed solely in the minds of (Youngevity management).
Wakaya claim Youngevity drove away high-ranking affiliates from Wakaya, who otherwise had a legal right to jump ship. The termination of Youngevity affiliates who left for Wakaya was part of a “vendetta and without legal justification”.
Specific allegations of “counterproductive behavior”, infidelity and the promotion of “ill-conceived and unprofitable business decisions” are laid out against Youngevity’s founder, Joel Wallach.
Dr. Wallach frequently engaged in a pattern of traveling with and sharing hotel rooms at Youngevity events with a variety of female companions other than his wife, some of whom are Youngevity distributors.
This behavior was widely known within the Youngevity community.
Taking advantage of the influence he held as founder of Youngevity, Dr. Wallach routinely attempted to coerce distributors, including Vaughn and the Pitcocks, into inserting Dr. Wallach’s female companions into favored positions in their distributors’ organization.
The Wallach Group tolerated, and thereby condoned, this behavior, despite its highly inappropriate nature.
When the Distributor (defendants) protested about Dr. Wallach’s manipulation of their organizational structures, the Wallach Group reacted in vindictive and defensive ways.
For example, when any distributor refused to insert Dr. Wallach’s companions into his or her organization, Dr. Wallach threatened to never participate in events or otherwise help them promote their business.
Often this threat from the founder of the company was enough to compel compliance.
Wallach’s “companions” are not named in the countersuit.
When the Pitcocks objected
🤖 Quick Answer
What did Wakaya Perfection claim in their counterclaim against Youngevity?Wakaya Perfection filed a counterclaim portraying Youngevity as a spiteful company motivated by vendetta. The company denied most allegations, asserting that distributors are not Wakaya agents and that Youngevity selectively quoted statements out of context for self-serving purposes, while deflecting responsibility onto Youngevity's board members.
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