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A company that publishes the work of property experts Olly Newland and Mark Withers is preparing to file proceedings against Richmastery.
Empower Leaders Publishing accuses Richmastery of copying the work of the two property experts and that of Empower's director Peter Aranyi, and distributing it in course notes stamped with Richmastery's copyright mark.
Aranyi confirmed that law firm Simpson Grierson had written a "final demand" to Richmastery requesting full disclosure of where Empower's material had been used, and an undertaking not to further distribute any material taken from Empower's products, and damages.
He said Richmastery's response had been unsatisfactory and Empower was preparing documentation to file in court for summary judgment.
Empower alleges material was lifted from the Commercial Real Estate Investor's Guide compiled by Aranyi and for which tax specialist Withers and Newland contributed several chapters. It is claimed material from Newland's book The Rascal's Guide To Real Estate was also plagiarised.
Richmastery director Phil Jones said a staff member made "a mistake without our consent. Within 90 minutes of us being made aware of that we took corrective action and that's really the end of the matter. The actions of the staff member don't reflect the ... values of the company."
Jones said he wasn't aware of any proceedings having been filed.
The company was last month at the centre of a Googling row where Richmastery paid the search engine company for sponsored links when people searched for names including prominent property authors such as Newland and companies including Empower Education. Google has undertaken to remove links to trademark names.
Richmastery has twice run foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading advertising.
The authority upheld complaints in 2004 from Wellington barrister Tim Vogel who complained that two Richmastery advertisements didn't deliver what was promised.
The first advertisement - which began "HERE'S HOW THE rich make their money and YOU can too" - for a $49.95 options trading seminar purported to reveal "my jealously guarded MONEY MAKING formula" but Vogel complained it was a primer to other courses and software with a total cost of $6685.
The ASA ruled the advertisement did not strictly observe the tenets of truth and clarity, had not met the high standard of social responsibility required and was "completely unacceptable". Richmastery appealed unsuccessfully.
The second complaint regarded an advertisement "HOW YOU CAN RETIRE YOUNG RETIRE RICH IN UNDER 4 YEARS" promoting a $69.95 seminar as "one of the most complete". Vogel complained it was far from complete, giving only a basic overview of property investing. Learning the systems or tools would cost at least $4698.
The ASA said the advertisement "under-represented the consumer's investment in ... fees, time and effort required, and over-stated the benefits in hyperbolic and exaggerated manner that was totally inappropriate".
Also in 2004, the Disputes Tribunal ruled against Richmastery (also known at the time as Entrepreneurs Success Centre) in a case brought by Reon Symon who was seeking to enforce the advertised "100% money-back guarantee". Symon paid $2990 for an options trading seminar, plus $1646 for computer software. He put his newfound knowledge into practice and quickly lost several thousand dollars.
Richmastery refused to pay saying the guarantee had a 15-day limit. The tribunal awarded a full refund.
Richmastery director Phil Jones says: During the past three years Richmastery "has every reason to be proud of its successful advertising campaigns which are vetted by experts prior to newspaper publication to ensure they comply with industry guidelines".
* The Consumers Institute urges caution about any investment that is promoted through hyped presentation, doesn't give typical examples of benefits and risks, and discourages getting independent professional advice.
Late last year the Institute put this caution on its website: "We repeat our earlier warnings - we advise extreme caution in dealing with Richmastery and Phil Jones."
* Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard urges caution regarding schemes or investments promising a high return with little or no risk and what might appear to be little or no outlay.
She advises asking for contracts and taking independent advice before signing up for any proposal where pressure is involved.
