Herbalife nemesis Bill Ackman wants the company to release a 2005 video of CEO Michael Johnson admitting to seeing signs of a pyramid scheme at the company.
“You have called Herbalife ‘the best business opportunity on the face of the earth,’” David Klafter, a lawyer for Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund, wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles company on Friday.
“Which is it — lottery ticket or opportunity?” Klafter asked, requesting that the video with Johnson’s 71-minute talk be released.
The video, taken at a management meeting, was viewed by The Post — and Johnson’s comments on a host of Herbalife issues, from recruitment to how easy it was to become a multimillionaire as an independent distributor of the company’s shakes, were not previously disclosed.
Among other things, Johnson explains that only 26 people have hit the top sales rung at Herbalife, the so-called Chairman’s Club. The company was too glib in telling recruits how easy it was to become super-rich, Johnson noted. In fact, he said, it was far from easy and more like a “lottery ticket.”
Johnson pressed the distributors to change their act.
His criticisms of some of Herbalife’s practices were similar to those mentioned by Ackman in 2012, when he called it a pyramid scheme and put a $1 billion short on the diet-shake seller.
Herbalife denies Ackman’s accusation. In recent years, Johnson has been quoted as saying Herbalife was never a pyramid scheme and that the accusations against it were news to him.
Herbalife could not be reached for comment.