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Erna Mae Francis co-authored Success from the Heart. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – Success from the Heart is a book published by a company called New Peaks. It contains a chapter written by Erna Mae Francis-Cotton of the Victorious Living Foundation. In many ways this is, as the email we received about the publication described it, an “amazing book,” if only because the authors give away bonuses they claim to be worth a stunning $15,078. The book itself is for sale at amazon.com for just $18.95. The bonuses are therefore worth 795 times the price of the book. Too good to be true?

The bonuses were only valid yesterday. They include gifts from our local author Erna Mae Francis -Cotton worth $691 – for – and we quote – ‘Revitalize Your Relationship Coaching for two couples,’ ‘Transform Your Life Coaching for two individuals’ and ‘Family Cohesion & Harmony Coaching for one family.’

Twenty authors contributed to the book and they all offer more or less similar gifts. Adam Markel, the chief executive officer of New Peaks, a company that previously operated under the name Peak Potentials, gives away a Heart of Success Teleclass with a value of $500, VIP tickets to the Millionaire Mind Experience and tickets to Reignite, described as ‘a brand new 3-day transformation event’ valued at $2,284.

Then there is, to pick just one other example, Dr. Elena Pizzini, who gives away access to thirteen quizzes and E-books about pets and animals that are apparently worth $2,000 (or $153.85 per quiz or E-book). Among them are titles like, What Does Your Dog Think of You? and Five Signs Your Dog Loves You.

All these freebies come with an $18.95 book that contains 35 “powerful stories of heart-centered transformation” in which the co-authors “bravely share candid accounts of triumph over adversity, about finally honoring their true calling, and generously offer keen insights, tools and resources to help you experience the fulfillment on your path to real and lasting success.”

A description that boisterous, coming from a company that changed its name from Peak Potentials to New Peaks, combined with an outrageous bonus offer, will have many people scratch behind their ears and wonder what is going on here – and for good reason.

There are quite some complaints about New Peaks predecessor Peak Potentials about expensive seminars that gave potential buyers only three days to cancel their order. New Peaks refused to refund dissatisfied customers with a reference to the rigid small print in its contracts.

One woman complained that she had become ill during the Enlightened Warrior Training and during the Life Directions Intensive training. “I attribute my getting sick to the schedule that went past midnight on most nights. I am a healthy person and hardly ever get sick,” the plaintiff wrote on complaintsboard.com.

The woman notes that during the Enlightened Warrior Training “the yelling throughout the program almost damaged the hearing in my left ear. While in a huddle during a process, I felt something in my left ear pop as one man was screaming in my ear, resulting in ringing that I felt for several weeks.”

Motivational speaker T. Harv Eker established Peak potentials in 1988. Adam Markel now leads New Peaks.

One contribution on complaintboard.com describes Eker as a one-time owner of Peak Potentials who “ran a very slick deal in gray areas of investment.” The same complaint describes Adam Markel as “a fraud,” adding that Markel “has scammed people out of money in a real estate scam called Grandview” and that he has “several malpractice law suits against him.”

Someone who attended Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar, notes that the content “does provide financial awareness and tools to create wealth and life balance” but warns at the same time that this 3-day free seminar is a lead to make participants buy other products for – as several complaints have made clear – thousands of dollars. The participant also noted that the seminar “periodically reverted to evangelical tendencies” but he described the substance of the material on offer nevertheless as “fantastic.”

“Anyone who claims that he can tell you how to become rich – unless they’re selling plans on how to knock off a bank and get away with it – is a scammer,” another plaintiff wrote about Eker. “People such as this Eker guy become rich by selling their snake oil packages to naïve people who are prepared to swallow that kind of bs. The old adage applies – if it sounds too good to be true then it is. Don’t surrender your hard-earned money to these scammers.”

The Vancouver Sun reported in 2007 about the Freedom Investment Club, that Eker promoted back in 2002 at his “so-called Millionaires School.” This company got into trouble with the B.C. Securities Commission – but by that time, Eker was already gone as an agent for that company.

In 2011, Eker sold Peak Potentials to Success Resources, a company owned by Singapore-based Richard Tan who renamed it New Peaks.

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