Bill Ackman Gets Vindication in Herbalife Battle

潘兴广场资本管理首席执行官比尔·阿克曼对米尔比比亚的曲折四年战斗周二在美国联邦贸易委员会邮寄到美国邮寄到350,000名劫机者受害者的邮寄到美国邮政支票中，提高了对冲基金经理的索赔多级营销company has defrauded millions of people around the world.

The checks are the result of a July 2016 settlement with the FTC that required Herbalife to pay $200 million and fundamentally restructure its business, the FTC said in a statement. But the settlement, although one of the biggest in the FTC’s history, still wasn’t big enough to make whole the people who lost money running Herbalife businesses, the FTC acknowledged. They will only be getting restitution of 10 to 20 percent of what they paid for Herbalife’s protein shakes and other nutritional products, victim advocates and attorneys who helped the victims file complaints with the FTC told亚博赞助欧冠.

Ackman, who declined to comment on the news, hasn’t been made whole either. His Herbalife short remains a big position for his Pershing Square hedge funds, representing about 9 percent of his $11.6 billion firm at year-end. And whereas Herbalife shares fell 9.4 percent last year, representing a yearly gain for Ackman, he’s still in the red since he first shorted the company in May 2012.

But the battle has been moving in Ackman’s favor. Following the FTC’s two-year investigation into Herbalife’s business practices, the regulator reached a settlement with Herbalife over charges that it had deceived those who signed up to be Herbalife distributors. In addition to the $200 million payment, Herbalife will be subject to an independent federal monitor for seven years to make sure it follows stringent rules the FTC instituted as part of the deal. Those rules are designed to make sure Herbalife starts “operating legitimately,” as FTC chair Edith Ramirez put it at the time.

更加糟糕的康宝飞的消息也在来临：2017年3月，一部关于Ackman的战斗的纪录片，Betting on Zero根据熟悉释放计划的消息来源，将击中剧院。（它于2016年4月在Tribeca电影节上首选。）纪录片特色Ackman和西班牙裔活动家Julie Contreras（他为FTC带来了45名受害者），并在公司的实践中闪耀着苛刻的光线。

自定居点以来，米尔巴达比股份跌幅超过25％，因为坏消息即将来临。据投资者称，去年秋季首席执行官迈克尔约翰逊宣布他会留下他的职位，并将赫巴拉比亚州最大的股东卡尔··伊曼（Carl Icahn）销售他的股权。因此有美元兑唐纳德·特朗普的当选为美国总统后的墨西哥比索强度，墨西哥代表康宝莱的最大的市场之一。

去年米宝贝的下降帮助修剪康斯曼广场国际奥克斯离岸基金的损失，达到了12月27日估计的9％。他的公共基金，歌舞广场控股，年末下降了13.5％。（在去年3月15日的低点，潘兴方持股下跌26％，主要是因为他对陷入困难的药物制造商缬草制药国际的灾难性赌注。）

Herbalife closed Tuesday at $49.54 — up about 1 percent for the year and slightly above Ackman’s breakeven of about $48 on his short position. However, he’s already taken losses on put options he bought, starting in mid-2013, to restructure the short when it soared after Icahn took a big stake in the company. Icahn, who now has five Herbalife board seats, owns more than 24 percent of Herbalife, with breakeven of about $41.91.

One wild card is the future posture of the FTC in a Trump administration, now that Icahn has been named a special adviser to the president on regulatory issues. Multilevel marketing critics are worried that the FTC, which has had a hands-off attitude to MLMs in prior Republican administrations, will revert to that view.

Meanwhile, the 350,000 people receiving checks for their Herbalife losses represent only a small portion of the people who signed up to be Herbalife distributors between 2009 and 2015, the period the settlement covered. Doug Brooks, an attorney who represented some of the victims, estimates that only 25 percent of the Herbalife distributors during that time frame are receiving checks — primarily individuals who spent $4,000 to $5,000 to become “supervisors,” which allowed them to recruit others into the business, as that’s where most of the big losses occur. He estimates their total losses come to about $1.5 billion during the period covered by the settlement.

Not all of those who filed complaints with the FTC are receiving checks either. Of the 45 victims that Contreras took to the FTC, only 15 are getting a check. Whereas they ended up losing money, they also participated, although unwittingly, in the alleged fraud by recruiting others and have been excluded as a result. “It’s as if they are being revictimized,” Contreras told亚博赞助欧冠.

The FTC doesn’t see it that way. “We are pleased to announce that hundreds of thousands of hard-working consumers victimized by Herbalife’s deceptive earnings claims will receive money back,” said Jessica Rich, director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. “Along with changes the company will make to its business structure, this is a win for consumers.”