Robert L. FitzPatrick

Last updated
Robert L. FitzPatrick
Born
Robert Lawrence FitzPatrick

1946 or 1947
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
CitizenshipUnited States of America
Education Belmont Abbey College (BA)
Notable work
  • False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
  • Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing
Website www.pyramidschemealert.org

Robert Lawrence FitzPatrick (born 1946 or 1947) is an American author and writer. He serves as president of Pyramid Scheme Alert, [1] a consumer organization to confront the abuses of pyramid schemes.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

FitzPatrick was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina to Thomas Raymond Fitzpatrick Sr. and Kathleen Ann Frank. [2] [3] FitzPatrick is the youngest of his two siblings. [4] FitzPatrick graduated from Charlotte Catholic High School in 1964. [5] FitzPatrick then attended Belmont Abbey College, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology in 1968. [6] [7]

Career

FitzPatrick's interest in pyramid schemes was sparked in the 1980s when he joined a business with a multi-level, direct-sales model. While Fitzpatrick didn't lose money, he did witness first-hand how one could get sucked into what he called "delusional behavior". [8]

Author

FitzPatrick is the co-author of the self-published book False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes ( ISBN   0-964879-514), [9] a 1997 critical book that examines the multi-level marketing (MLM) industry. He has followed it up with his book Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing ( ISBN   978-0-57-844351-5) in 2021. [10] The title: Ponzinomics is a portmanteau of Ponzi and Economics that "captures two realities of multilevel marketing": that it's both a pyramid scheme and a cult with a "belief system and... ideology" [11]

Speaker

FitzPatrick has been featured on Fraud Squad TV, [12] ABC World News [1] and WTTW's Chicago Matters. [13] He has been interviewed live on CBC's Marketplace. [14] He has been quoted in newspapers and journals, including The Wall Street Journal [15] [16] and The New York Times . [17]

Personal life

FitzPatrick is of Italian descent. [2]

Reference

  1. 1 2 "ABC News - Multimillion Dollar Scam Exploits Women". ABC World News Archive. Archived from the original on 2004-08-03. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  2. 1 2 "Kathleen Frank Fitzpatrick". The Charlotte Observer . Charlotte, North Carolina. p. 3B – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Thomas "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, Jr. (November 12, 1938 - July 31, 2021)". The Charlotte Observer . Vol. 152, no. 219. Charlotte, North Carolina. August 7, 2021. p. 7A – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Roll: 1121; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 102-118B
  5. ↑ Balog, Robert; McClain, Gary, eds. (1964). 1964. Charlotte, North Carolina: Charlotte Catholic High School. pp. 28, 61–62, 75, 80, 128, 135 – via Classmates.
  6. ↑ "Robert Fitzpatrick Warns Readers of the Dangers of Multi-Level Marketing in "Ponzinomics"". Charlotte Readers Podcast. Charlotte, North Carolina. May 21, 2021.
  7. ↑ Sources: * The Spire. Belmont, North Carolina: Belmont Abbey College. 1968. pp. 45, 66, 144, 204 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ "Multi-Level Marketing Critic: Beware 'Main Street Bubble'". CNBC . 9 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "False Profits - Robert L FitzPatrick - Book - Barnes & Noble". Barnes & Noble . Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  10. ↑ "Robert Fitzpatrick Warns Readers of the Dangers of Multi-Level Marketing in "Ponzinomics"". Charlotte Readers Podcast. Charlotte, North Carolina. May 21, 2021.
  11. ↑ Savage, Luke (November 5, 2021). ""Multilevel Marketing" Companies Cheat and Exploit Ordinary People on a Vast Scale". Jacobin .
  12. ↑ "Fraud Library - Pyramid & Ponzi Schemes Fraud". Fraud Squad TV . Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  13. ↑ "WTTW Chicago Matters - Money Talks - Is It a Pyramid Scheme". WTTW Archive. Archived from the original on 2009-11-06. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  14. ↑ "Easy Money - Buying Into the Pitch to Become Rich - CBC News Marketplace". CBC Marketplace . Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  15. ↑ Stecklow, Steve (28 January 2009). "In Echoes Of Madoff, Ponzi Cases Proliferate (1-28-2009)". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  16. ↑ Maremont, Mark (2006-03-01). "Online 'Autosurf' Scams Use Legal Businesses to Flourish - Partial Article (3-1-2006)". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  17. ↑ Zimmerman, Eilene (2009-03-15). "Direct Sales as a Recession Fallback - NY Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
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