The owner of the network marketer Zrii LLC has lashed out with a scatter-gun legal strategy against former employees and distributors who left the company or were terminated after a failed bid to buy the company amid allegations of gross mismanagement. Zrii has filed three lawsuits -- in Utah, Delaware and California -- against 56 people outlining what owner and CEO Bill Farley claims was a broad conspiracy to either buy the company on the cheap or ruin it. Farley also is alleging that a competing California-based multilevel marketer of nutritional supplements, LifeVantage, was part of the conspiracy.
A lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City names 49 former employees who resigned after the executive management team and top distributors were unsuccessful in trying to force out Farley and buy the company from him. Since then, others resigned or were terminated by Farley. Some who resigned have filed claims with the Utah Labor Commission, alleging Farley had not paid them for bonuses or unpaid leave when they left.
Brent Asay of the commission confirmed that his agency is investigating the claims.
The lawsuit asserts that those being sued in Utah "have made improper demands ... with the Utah Labor Commission."
Farley and his attorneys declined comment on the lawsuits and the legal strategies behind them.
The three lawsuits also mean that Zrii is facing legal bills for at least three teams of lawyers at a time when the former executive management team says the company is strapped for cash.
