Only a few days ago did I report that Wake Up Now (WUN) may be heading for eternal slumber. Turns out, it's got some last gasp yet, but only to drag down somebody with it.
You heard it here, folks (thanks to BehindMLM for breaking the news) Wake Up Now wanted to take down someone with them, and that would be their former CEO Kirby Cochran (resigned October 16, 2014), as well as Elaine Cochrane (wife of Kirby, ex-legal counsel), Nathan Cochrane (son of Kirby, also ex-WUN staff) and some guy called Juan Carlos Lozano (Mexico area WUN leader).
However, by the various titles / headings used in the complaint, this was clearly written as a PR piece, not a legal complaint, as it contains such gems as:
Basically, everybody needs to do their due diligence. If you as an affiliate don't do so, you risk joining a bad company and lose time AND money. If a company failed its due diligence, it goes out of business, and in a network marketing company, screws over thousands, tens of thousands, or more people over several years.
You heard it here, folks (thanks to BehindMLM for breaking the news) Wake Up Now wanted to take down someone with them, and that would be their former CEO Kirby Cochran (resigned October 16, 2014), as well as Elaine Cochrane (wife of Kirby, ex-legal counsel), Nathan Cochrane (son of Kirby, also ex-WUN staff) and some guy called Juan Carlos Lozano (Mexico area WUN leader).
However, by the various titles / headings used in the complaint, this was clearly written as a PR piece, not a legal complaint, as it contains such gems as:
- Kirby Cochran Gets His Nose into The WUN Tent
- Kirby Cochran Infiltrates WUN
- Kirby Gets "Loving Brother" Gary C. In On The Action
- and so on
Still, looking past the titles, it's clear that WUN painted an interesting story... they claimed that Kirby Cochran basically allowed WUN to go public by merging with one of his existing companies, and in doing so, basically took it over from the inside, and proceed to give his wife and son cushy positions doing little to nothing, contracted his brother as a consultant to eat up all the profit, then spent more money scrapping the old system for a new one, which didn't work. Upon resignation, Kirby Cochran allegedly solicited many top people in and around the company to launch a new one, ignoring the non-compete agreement and went after all the foreign IBOs, mostly by allegedly spreading lies and defaming WUN.
But how true is this?
The best lies are hidden by truth, and while there's no doubt a good possibility that Kirby Cochran may be a douchebag, we only have WUN's side of things. Furthermore, the responsibility ultimately lies with WUN for allowing a douchebag to lead them without doing proper due diligence on the guy, and allowed him to "rob the piggybank" for so long. This lawsuit reads like "closing the barn door after all the cows left" and cover-your-rearend. After all, the company gotta blame somebody for its failures, and if it can find someone else to blame, it will.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter. This only proves that WUN is done, over and out. Whether you believe that WUN really was a sustainable business (there's no sign of that) or it was robbed from within (there's some allegations) it's still a crappy business.
Basically, everybody needs to do their due diligence. If you as an affiliate don't do so, you risk joining a bad company and lose time AND money. If a company failed its due diligence, it goes out of business, and in a network marketing company, screws over thousands, tens of thousands, or more people over several years.
