The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 33

0 THE SUNDAY RECORD, APRIL 28, 1974 LlfESTYLE 74 7 Pyramid refunds offered ments, beginning June 1, and every six months thereafter. Bestline will replenish the fund by putting in 50 per cent of its pretax profits every year until all claims are settled. The $l-million installments will be prorated among all who have so how much an individual will get each time depends on how many people Bestline has to pay. Because of the closeness in time. New Jersey consumers will miss out on the first $l-million disbursement and will begin participating next Jan.

1. That means New Jersey investors will get part of the remaining $2 million, plus more later, assuming that Bestline remains solvent and continues to make a profit. The company threatened to go into bankruptcy in California rather than pay all distributors across the nation in a lump sum, and the fund was a compromise to let Bestline stay in business. Initial investment only The $2 million isn't much. In New Jersey alone there are more than 1,000 investors, and at $3,000 each, there's a potential liability of $3 million.

Reimbursement may well come in dribs and drabs. And there are limitations on the refund. It applies only to product obtained in exchange for the initial investment. If somebody sold his $3,000 worth of soap, reordered, and got stuck, he isn't eligible. From the initial investment ED GORIN For those who invested before last May 4: there was a judgment against Bestline in California, its home state, setting- up an initial $3 million trust fund to pay investors across the country through arrangements worked out in the respective states.

These payments will be made in $1 million install distributor so it sits in his garage. The more you sell, the greater the discount you get from the company. No longer can you pay $3,000 to entitle you to begin at a big discount. And, most important, if you decide Bestline isn't for you, your sponsor the person who brought you into the company must buy back your inventory, minus a small service charge. Seems there is no risk The way Cohen describes it, the new selling plan now in use becomes almost no risk.

All you stand to lose is time, and as such makes a good way to earn some part-time income. If you're really a good salesman (as opposed to a con man) and have some talent for organization, you might turn it into a legitimate full-time job. Now for the agreement: There are two aspects, says Deputy Atty. Gen. Carl Wyho-pen, one for those who invested in New Jersey before May 4, 1973, and another for those who invested later.

That is the date when New Jersey filed suit against Bestline. "If there ever was an aspect to the selling program that lent itself to predatory individuals, it's gone now," Cohen said. The new program he described seems similar to Am-way's, which also sells soap products and has been in business more than a dozen years without encountering any trouble. Cohen said there no longer is an initial investment, save for a small membership fee, and that profit to the member is based on actual retail sales to consumers no more selling of $3,000 wortn to another you also will have to deduct any gross profit you made on products you sold, and also a couple of hundred dollars which went for training and demonstration material rather than product Bestline will write to all distributors in the next few months explaining the agreement and enclosing an affidavit stating the value of the product on hand and whether a person wants a refund. As Bestline pays, it can demand return of the product, but only that percentage it already has paid for.

Only unopened cases will be accepted for refund. Bestline will have the choice of opening a New Jersey warehouse and telling distributors to get the product there at their own cost or of having distributors send their product out of state at company cost. If you know a Bestline Investor, call this to his attention. Lots of investors have been trying to dump their products at a loss, just to be rid of it, and there will be sharpies around looking to make a killing by buying it for pennies and getting full refunds from Bestline. Later investors luckier Those who invested after May 4, 1973, are luckier.

When the state filed suit, it asked that Bestline be prevented from selling any more distrib-. utorships until the case was resolved. Bestline spokesmen protested, saying that would put them out of business even if eventually they were found innocent. Superior Court Judge Max Mehler, a wise man who unfortunately died last week only months after being elevated to the appellate division, played Solomon. He let the company sell distributorships but ordered the to deposit the investments with the court until the case was resolved.

Today, with interest, there is more than $150,000 in that fund. Judge Melvin P. Antell ordered that the people who paid this money those who invested after last May 4 be given first crack at it, and the remainder be prorated among all other New Jersey investors. Those people who invested after May 4 and want to get out probably will see almost all their money relatively soon in a lump sum. The attorney general's office will write to AN EXCEPTIONAL BUY FROM STANLEY ROBERTS: STAINLESS STEEL FLATWARE FOR 4 (N 3 PATTERNS Only because this respected maker urgently needed to clear his warehouse were we able to negotiate such an exceptional value on patterns you'd probably expect to cost much, 'much more.

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Special Purchase 4.99 (E66-3) Auberage (F66-3) Olde Boston (G65-3) La Contessa i-. I 4 v' i 111 I'll' I V- tv I 1 Continued from Page B-l was the marketing scheme that was bad. According to the terms of the agreement, which will end up as a consent judgment with the force of a court order, Bestline admits no wrong, and the attorney general doesn't press the point. Bestline's New Jersey attorney, Harold Cohen of the Perth Amboy law firm of Wil-entz, Goldman, and Spitzer, says the company changed management last summer and has undergone a thorough house cleaning. I 4 il li I Ccr2 Green -A If 5 If I II 0M II ill I II 1 -V 4- A SAVE ON IMPORTED FRENCH TUMBLERS OR ON-THE-ROCKS IN CARRY-PACKS TO TAKE RIGHT HOME Extra large tumblers and on-the-rocks to help you be an even more generous host In two faceted de-.

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tumblers cr8ft-oz. on-the-rocks Now 8 of a size, 3.50 Originally 8 for $6 those who qualify. There will be other tidbits of news in the future how many New Jersey investors asked for refunds, how much Bestline earns and puts into the fund, and finally, how much has been returned totally to New Jersey residents but the long fight seems over. My file is marked closed. I wish I could mark Koscot closed, also.

There is insanity going on in Florida courtroom, where Koscot has filed under the federal Bankruptcy Act to settle its debts and stay in business. The same Max Mehler who ruled in the Bestline case found the Koscnt selling plan to be a fraud six months before Bestline went to court, and the company owes New Jersey residents more than $2 million as a result of that decision. Koscot has proposed a subsidiary corporation to pay out of its earnings $3 million to everyone in the country who is a dissatisfied investor. This is peanuts, when New Jersey alone is owed more than million, and who needs another Koscot company trying to earn money through who knows what means in order to pay the debt? The New Jersey attorney general's office has hired a Honda lawyer to represent the state's defrauded consumers in the bankruptcy court, but the judge ruled that New Jersey can't do that and severed the state from the case. The state is appealing.

If yrm want a refund, harry Meanwhile, of 1.100 New Jersey investors who have valid claims against Koscot. only 75 have filed the necessary claims with the bankruptcy court If they wait much longer, despite all they've gone through so far. they will end up rth nothing. The attorney general's office in Neark has the fnrmv If jnw're a defrauded investor, write to the Division Law. 11 Ravmond BNd Neark.

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