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Richard DeVos

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (March 4, 1926-September 6, 2018)
    Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Co-founder of Amway (1959)
    Bought the Orlando Magic (1991)
    Family’s estimated net worth: $5.4 billion (2018)
    Father-in-law of Education Secretary Betsey DeVos

Why he might be annoying:

    His company’s ‘multi-level marketing’ is often described as a fancier version of a pyramid scheme.
    Several studies have found that a majority of Amway distributors lost money on the venture.
    He and two other Amway executives were charged in Canada with customs fraud for underreporting the value of goods imported into the country (1982); charges were dropped after Amway agreed to pay $45 million in outstanding custom duties and a $25 million fine, the largest imposed in Canada at the time.
    A few months after he and his wife donated $1 million to the Republican National Committee, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott added a last-minute provision to a tax bill that gave Amway and four other companies $19 million in tax breaks on earnings from their Asian branches (1997).
    He funded anti-gay rights organizations like Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage.
    Despite his own wealth, he demanded that Orange County pay to build a new arena for the Magic.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Helen van Wesep for 64 years.
    He served in the Army Air Force during World War II.
    An investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (1979) concluded that Amway was not a pyramid scheme, although the FTC did find that the company engaged in price fixing and misrepresented potential profits to distributors.
    He gave millions to educational and medical charities and helped fund the revitalization of his hometown of Grand Rapids.
    Each month, he sent dozens of notes of appreciation to Amway employees, noting ‘I’ve built my business on complimenting people. We don’t do that enough.’
    He said, ‘We call our company Amway because the American way of private ownership and free enterprise is the best way.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 20 Votes: 15.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 69 Votes: 50.72% Annoying