Mecklenburg County’s one competitive state Senate race has been defined, in part, by the Democratic candidate’s past work in sales for a company that the federal government said was a pyramid scheme.
Republican Stacie McGinn has criticized Democrat Woodson Bradley for being a “Platinum Sales Manager” at Kentucky-based Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing.
In 2013, the Federal Trade Commission, along with North Carolina and two other states, said the company was an illegal pyramid scheme. They were successful in shutting it down.
The former attorney general of Kentucky said at the time that the company was “one of the most prolific pyramid schemes in America.” Roy Cooper, who was then North Carolina’s attorney general, said “the people at the company who made money made it at the expense of new recruits who end up losing.”
Bradley worked for the company in sales, and praised the company in a promotion video roughly 12 years ago.
She said the flexibility of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing has “absolutely destroyed me for the traditional life of punching the time clock.” She added: “I won’t go back. I will never go back.”
The company sold health and beauty products, as well as services like the Dish Network.
The FTC said the company targeted Latinos. A Reuters story from 2013 said about 100,000 people nationwide were affected by the scheme.
The Charlotte Observer reported a decade ago that “some prominent Charlotteans were caught up in the company." Longtime Charlotte television host Barbara McKay told the newspaper she had once been a sales representative for Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. The Observer also reported Donna Lewis, wife of former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, bought into the company.
McGinn is running against Bradley for the open seat in south Charlotte that leans Democratic. The seat is held now by Democrat Rachel Hunt, who is running for lieutenant governor.
Republican lawmakers in Raleigh last year re-drew the seat to give GOP candidates a better chance to win. It's seen as a critical race as to whether Republicans can keep their supermajority in the General Assembly.
McGinn is a former attorney for the state Republican Party and was an attorney for Bank of America.
She has sent numerous mailers highlighting Bradley’s ties to FHTM, including Bradley being in the company’s "Ring of Honor."
“By her own admission she was a top 11 earner,” McGinn said. “She was a platinum sales manager. And she was clearly a top promoter. There are videos of her addressing rooms full of people, encouraging them to participate in the scheme, and instructing them on how they can recruit others to do so.”
In response to questions about the company, Bradley’s campaign released a statement saying: “Stacie McGinn’s campaign for State Senate is solely focused on misleading and disingenuous attacks against Woodson Bradley to distract from her ties to Mark Robinson and their extremist policies. “
It said McGinn’s campaign material insinuates that Bradley owned FHTM and was a party in the case against the company. The campaign said, “This is simply not true.”
It added that the claim that Bradley defrauded anyone is false.
Bradley’s campaign webpage does not mention her time at Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. She doesn’t hold elected office now, and she did not have an opponent in the March Democratic primary.
McGinn has noted that Bradley is named in the federal court filing seeking to shut down the company, although her name appears in an explanatory role about how the company worked, such as how sales bonuses were handled.
“(Her role) is much more than just having been a participant,” McGinn said.
Bradley’s campaign said she will support abortion rights and funding public schools. And in response to questions about the pyramid scheme, the campaign worked to tie McGinn to Robinson, the lieutenant governor who is running for governor.
In an interview, McGinn said the statements attributed to Robinson by CNN last month are “beneath the office of the lieutenant governor and governor.”
