Wealth Masters initiated legal action against two former marketing partners, Jesse Musick and Pat Berry, and their company Office VP LLC, in Texas' Fort Bend County Court between December 23rd and 29th, 2010. This filing followed the public departure of several key corporate staff from Wealth Masters that year.
In late 2010, Wealth Masters launched "WMI Marketing," a new system for its members. Michael Hamburger, then Vice President of Marketing, was responsible for its implementation. Hamburger left Wealth Masters for Avant in late October or early November 2011. Roughly a week later, Wealth Masters circulated a "Corporate Staff" list to various online directories, titled "FACT OR FICTION; WHAT DO THESE 27 HAVE IN COMMON?" This list aimed to introduce lesser-known executives to the WMI member base after the high-profile exits.
Jesse Musick appeared on that list as a marketing partner and "co-creator of all the software systems that make Marketing Central run." Pat Berry was similarly credited as "one of the co-creators of WMI’s Map Your Life system in Marketing Central." Despite Hamburger being the public face of WMI Marketing during his tenure, Musick and Berry seemed to take on that role after his departure.
The lawsuit filed by Wealth Masters against Musick and Berry, and their company Office VP LLC, is categorized as "Contract – Consumer/Commercial/Debt." Records from the Fort Bend County Court website do not detail the case specifics.
Musick and Berry's company, Office VP LLC, is credited at the bottom of a replicated website operated by Rick Billings, part of the LeaderElite network. Rick Billings is identified as a "senior officer" for Ariix on his replicated page, which also features a capture video by Tim Sales. The LeaderElite replicated website's copyright notice states "© 2011 Office VP LLC and Leader Elite. All rights reserved."
At least 177 websites currently promote a similar replicated capture page to Rick Billings' Leader Elite site. These pages all feature the same Tim Sales capture video.