ACN Inc.

ACN, Inc. is a North American multi-level marketing (MLM) company.[2] It provides telecommunications, energy, merchant services and other services, depending on the country, through a network of independent sellers who also can recruit other sellers, often under false claims of potential earnings. Based in Concord, North Carolina, United States, ACN began operations in the United States in 1993.[3] As of 2019, the company reported that it operates in twenty-seven countries.[4]

Donald Trump and three of his children had some involvement with ACN during his term as president of the United States. In 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against them alleging fraud, false advertising, unfair competition, and a now-dismissed allegation of racketeering.[5][6]

Services

ACN offers landline telephone service (local and long distance), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), high-speed Internet, satellite television, cellular phone through the company's own mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Flash Wireless, and home security services, primarily to consumers, and secondarily to small businesses. Beginning in 2011, ACN also began offering an ACN-branded international calling smartphone app available for iPhone, Android and Symbian, reselling WiMAX wireless Internet, and technical support service for personal and business computers, as well as getting back into the energy reselling market through partner XOOM Energy.[21]

With variations depending upon the country of operation, provision of ACN's services follows three models:

1) The reselling of ACN-branded services originating in an incumbent provider. This is exemplified by local and long-distance telephone, where ACN buys local telephone service from an incumbent provider such as Qwest or AT&T, and bills customers in its own name. This model was made possible by telephone industry deregulation beginning in 1996; prior to this, ACN was involved solely in reselling long-distance telephone service. It was the expansion of deregulation internationally that made it possible for ACN to begin to operate outside the United States.

2) Acting as a sales agent for the service provider, where an ACN representative sells the service, but order fulfillment, billing, and servicing is performed by the branded provider. In the US, ACN resells Internet service through AT&T. ACN offers wireless services through its own MVNO called Flash Wireless on Sprint and Verizon's networks. Television services are provided through DIRECTV and Dish Network. Home security and automation is offered through Vivint.[22] ACN now also resells energy (electricity and natural gas) through Planet Energy and Xoom Energy.

3) The selling of ACN-branded and provided services. These are Voice over Internet Protocol[23] in which ACN owns and maintains its own network of servers. Starting in January 2011, ACN has also added an ACN-branded computer technical support service to its service offerings.[24]

Legal cases

On June 13, 2002, ACN settled a case with the Bureau of Consumer Services in Pennsylvania wherein it was alleged that "independent business owners" (IBOs) were "slamming" or switching consumer services without authorization. ACN disputed the allegations and the exact details of the settlement are under court seal. However, the suit alleged that 135 informal complaints were filed with the Bureau of Consumer Services (BCS) between June 2000 and November 2001, consisting of 22 consumers alleging that their generation service was switched without authorization ("slamming"), 81 alleged instances of overcharging ("cramming"), and 32 complaints with allegations of various violations of the commission's regulations contained in Chapter 54, 56, and 57 of Title 52 of the Pennsylvania Code.[25]

In August 2010, the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Monica Lindeen announced the issuance of a Cease-and-Desist Order and Notice of Proposed Agency Action against ACN, Inc. and several of its founders for operating a pyramid scheme. In September 2010, the Commissioner moved to vacate the Cease-and-Desist Order in full settlement of the case.[26] During the Commissioner's investigation, the Commissioner determined that the actions giving rise to the initial concerns were not part of the ACN business model, but instead were isolated instances taking place by certain ACN's independent representatives in Montana. The Commissioner and ACN agreed that ACN would implement additional training with its independent representatives to assist them in better understanding their responsibilities as ACN independent representatives and that ACN would contact its Montana video phone customers to assist them with the installation of their service.[27]

Doe et al. v. Trump Corp. et al.

In July 2019, a SDNY District Judge permitted state-level charges of fraud, false advertising, and unfair competition against Donald Trump and his children Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric related to their involvement with ACN. (The judge, however, dismissed racketeering (RICO) allegations against the family.)[5][6][28] The Trumps are accused of not having disclosed that they were being paid by ACN when they recommended ACN as a sound investment. As part of the discovery process, the Trumps were ordered in March 2020 to provide information from Trump Organization business records for 15 years back to 2005.[29] The Trumps sought to take the case to private arbitration, but the SDNY District Judge denied their request on April 8, 2020.[30]

type	Private
foundation	1993
location city	Concord, North Carolina
location country	US
founders	Robert Stevanovski Gregory Provenzano Anthony Cupisz Michael Cupisz ‡R1R‡
industry	Multi-level marketing, telecommunications
products	Landline Wireless Broadband
revenue	US$750 million (2016)
num employees	1,100
homepage	https://ACN.com/

Business model

History

Services

Legal cases

Doe et al. v. Trump Corp. et al.

External links

References