OpTree

Natural Health Trends announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally completed an investigation into the company involvement with two former executives charged with fraud.

As we told you last week, the two execs, Mark Woodburn and Terry LaCore did face civil charges related to this investigation and were each ordered to pay fines as well as agree not to hold executive positions for the next few years. Neither however had to either admit to or deny any wrongdoing in the case.

The investigation was launched almost two years ago, in October of 2006. The SEC was not only investigating the two former employees, but also the company’s actions regarding the fraudulent activity and subsequent firing of the two individuals.

After an investigation that NHT fully cooperated with, they received a letter this week from the SEC stating that they do not intent to recommend any enforcement action against the company.

NHT is thrilled to finally put this legal issue behind them. “Current management of the Company worked diligently to fully cooperate with the SEC in its investigation,” said the Company’s President, Chris Sharng. “We are pleased that no enforcement action has been recommended against the Company, and we look forward to continuing to focus on our business with this investigation behind us,” added Mr. Sharng.

With this investigation behind them, NHT can now fully tend problems regarding the trading, or non-trading of their stock, which has failed to meet the criteria needed for it to continue trading on the NASDAQ Capital Markets.

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Natural Health Trends (NHT) has just filed a lawsuit against one of their own. In a bizarre development, the company is suing Terry LaCore, the company’s founder and former director and executive officer.

The lawsuit claims that LaCore and his new company, bHIP Global, Inc., which is an energy drink company, has engaged in various unlawful activities including employee raiding, theft of confidential information and stealing trade secrets. The suit was filed in a state court in Dallas,Texas.

The lawsuit claims that LaCore illegally attempt to lure employees, distributors and vendors to his newest venture and persuaded them to break contracts. Natural Health Trends also claims that LaCore named his latest project using Natural Health Trend’s stock ticker symbol to confuse potential customers and investors.

NHT Global has been granted a temporary order to halt the use of confidential information as well as halting contact with any of their current employees.

Chris Sharng, President of Natural Health Trends Corp., said, “Our lawsuit describes dishonest and unethical conduct that is increasingly blatant. It seeks to stop that conduct and end an illegal assault on our relationships with our distributors, employees and vendors. We intend to use all legal means in any and all jurisdictions to prevent further attempts to undermine our business.”

These types of lawsuits are unfortunately pretty common in the MLM world and we’ve seen some battles go back and forth for quite some time (Quixtar vs. MonaVie). While i dont want to take sides, it does seem a bit odd, that Mr. LaCore, who was the founder of NHT and obviously is no longer involved with them, would choose to name a new venture, bHIP- I mean, i’m not a rocket scientist, but NHT Globals NASDAQ ticker is BHIP- that seems to me to be a bit more than a coincidence. Even their websites names are almost identical. We will keep you posted…..

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