Approval has been granted to sell NewAge off to original Morinda co-founder John Wadsworth.
NewAge, who owns the MLM companies Noni by NewAge and Ariix, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 30th.
That same day NewAge signed an Asset Purchase Agreement with DIP Financing LLC.
DIP Financing LLC is a Wyoming shell company with a PO Box address in Puerto Rico.
The sole named representative of DIP Financing LLC in the NewAge Asset Purchase Agreement is John Wadsworth.
Wadsworth is one of the original co-founders of Tahitian Noni International, dating all the way back to 1996. Non-MLM business operations date back even farther to 1993.
In a 2011 interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, John Wadsworth claimed Tahitian Noni adopted the MLM business model because he and his partners “ran out of money”.
Tahitian Noni International rebranded as Morinda in 2012.
John Wadsworth, president of TNI stated, “The new name stays true to our noni roots (since Morinda citrifolia is the scientific name for noni), while broad enough to capture the new bioactives vision.
The name Morinda symbolizes everything that this company represents–past, present, and future.”
BehindMLM reviewed Morinda in December 2015. The focus on affiliate autoship recruitment lent itself to Morinda operating as a pyramid scheme.
Morinda was sold off to New Age Beverages in December 2018. By then Wadsworth appears to have already left.
In December 2016 BehindMLM noted Wadsworth as one of six Zennoa co-founders.
Zennoa was bought out by Ariix in 2018. Ariix in turn was bought out by NewAge in 2020.
That brings us full-circle back to New Age’s 2022 bankruptcy.
Unknowns at this stage are
- how much DIP Financing LLC has agreed to purchase NewAge for;
- whether Wadsworth is alone in DIP Financing LLC; and
- what Wadsworth’s plans are for NewAge, Noni by NewAge and Ariix.
September 28th Statements of Financial Affairs reveal that, throughout 2021, NewAge appears to have been kept afloat by a $3.2 million PPP Loan.
Of the loan amount, $2.8 million was forgiven.
Ariix’s financial affairs meanwhile look kinda suss. The company recorded $23.9 million in gross revenue in 2021, which plummeted to just $15,506 from January 2022 to August 2022.
While NewAge did upload a press-release to their website acknowledging its bankruptcy on August 30th, the company hasn’t otherwise made any public acknowledgement.
Throughout bankruptcy NewAge has remained active on social media, discussing… evidently far more important issues.
I’m not expecting any further substantial updates but I’ll continue to monitor NewAge’s bankruptcy docket.