Faraday Hosseinipour was consistently focused on customer acquisition and helping her team succeed. The government knew this, as she had sent numerous emails to Rick Maike containing ideas and suggestions from the field on attracting customers and strengthening the company. She recognized that for distributors to be successful, it was crucial for the company to thrive as well. (Customer Acquisition emails are attached below)
Anzalone testified that Hosseinipour was “all about the customer.” He questioned the prosecutor about whether they had presented her emails that included “specific plans to acquire customers.” The government did not respond to Anzalone, as they were not interested in uncovering the truth. Their goal was to misrepresent Hosseinipour as being “all about the money.”
During her closing arguments, Marissa Ford asked the jury, “When was the last time you heard Hosseinipour speak in a hangout about acquiring customers?” This question was particularly misleading, as the government had presented four videos in which Hosseinipour consistently discussed I2G products and customer acquisition. She emphasized that 25% of customer casino transactions were payable as bonus volume. These were misrepresentations by the government, attempting to suggest that providing the same MLM business presentation as everyone else in the company was a crime. However, they only played short clips from those videos. The reality was that Hosseinipour’s training on products and her discussions about customer acquisition did not support the false narrative the government was trying to create.
Assistant District Attorney Marissa Ford was aware that Hosseinipour’s attorney was unfamiliar with the proper methods for introducing and presenting evidence, a fact that anyone who reads the trial transcript can easily recognize. Hosseinipour had sent numerous customer acquisition emails to her lawyer on multiple occasions and even brought these emails to trial alongside hundreds of product testimonials from distributors. Unfortunately, her attorney did not know how to properly introduce this evidence.
Ford appeared confident in making misleading statements about Hosseinipour, knowing that the jury lacked knowledge of multilevel marketing (MLM) and that Hosseinipour’s ineffective counsel did not realize the importance of challenging her claims. However, the government possessed exculpatory emails and videos that disproved their statements.
Anzalone Testimony Affirming Faraday was All About Getting Customer. (Doc 465 #3602)
A. Yes. We talked about it. We talked about we needed growth.
Faraday was a big component of getting customers on the casino.
Biggest component of anybody was Faraday. She wanted the
customer — casino profit share and wanted the company to spend
money on it.
Q. Now, did you also talk with Rick Maike about the casino and
how it was going?
A. Yes. We all did. She wrote many e-mails. Was frustrated,
actually.
Doc 504 #4529
Q. Okay. And so, at that point, you had seen negligible casino
profits in August, September, October, November, December,
January, February, and March?
A. Yes. Correct.
Q. Okay. And she just said, “We get paid when other people
play”?
A. She — she did, yes. She said that.
Q. Were you getting any significant money from this?
A. No, but, again, if — I said earlier Faraday was a big
proponent of us putting a customer campaign out there, because
we get paid to play.
Doc 505 #4564 #4565
Q. And did you and Faraday talk about what to do about these
criticisms and how to address the issue?
A. Yes. Faraday actually put a whole how to acquire customers
e-mail together, which, hopefully, you know — I don’t know if
you’ve showed it, but she had a whole plan, like, I mean, she
went into detail of how to go get customers in the casino, but I
don’t know if — I don’t think it was ever acted upon.
Q. And —
A. So we — we more than talked about it. We were concerned.
Especially Faraday.
Q. And then you — or Faraday sent this to management?
A. Yes.
Q. And had you discussed with her that’s what the game plan was
going to be, to send this to management and let them know?
A. I think she’s pretty smart and did it on her own, but she
forwarded — I made phone calls because of my eyesight. So I
called management, and she e-mailed it —
Q. Okay.
A. — and put everything in writing, which was the right thing
to do, I think.
Q. And what was management’s response to the problems addressed
in this e — in this e-mail?
A. Moving forward in a positive way and offering them new
products and different stuff, but not — you know, I don’t know
how much it went back to fix it.