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The Atkinson Transcripts – “I’m not sitting at his house 24/7 with him” [#14 of 15]

On the night of August 14, CBI agent Greg Zentner was dispatched to Boulder to interview the most crucial witness in the Watts case. The transcript below is an excerpt from a 72 page document spanning 3223 lines of text.

CrimeRocket is the first to reproduce and analyze this critical transcript in-depth. The entire transcript has been broken down into 15 sections.

The fourteenth part includes:

  • Nickole’s concerns about talking to the media.
  • The neighbor, Nate Trinastich confiding in Nickole that “things look bad”.
  • Nickole briefly mentioning Thrive and Le-Vel, and the fact that Shan’ann’s money hadn’t been transferred to her account for two weeks.

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The audio for the above transcript is available here.

13 Comments

  1. Sylvester

    What do you make of LeVel failing to transfer money to her account in two weeks? And apparently Chris not being concerned about that. I don’t understand the context here but it seems that it would be very important if LeVel wasn’t paying on time, and also significant that Chris doesn’t appear to have a care about it. Might he have put that pay in some secret account himself? I’m a little baffled here. But we don’t know much about their financial situation, for real, as none of those documents have been disclosed. Also she had a car allowance – how and when did that money get deposited. Chris might have thought of making plans to have the Lexus hauled away at some future time but continued to pocket the car allowance allotment.

    • Ralph Oscar

      “Chris might have thought of making plans to have the Lexus hauled away at some future time but continued to pocket the car allowance allotment.”

      Well, Shan’Ann was the only real salesperson in that household. She sold under Chris’ ID, but Chris was so far from the process he thought the company was “LeBel”. So with Shan’Ann gone, those car allowance payments would have been gone as well. In MLM Limu (someone told me about it about 5 years ago), a salesperson who meets a specific threshold of sales is awarded a *leased* BMW – for that month. In order to keep the car, the salesperson’s sales need to stay at that level or increase each month (that part I don’t remember). Otherwise, the company takes the car away. So in the Limu model, it’s the *company* that’s holding the car lease.

      Plus, I’d be kind of surprised if Le Vel just handed out car allowance payments without some assurance and input about the kind of car they were being used for. Image was everything in LeVel, after all.

      With LeVel, apparently the liability for the lease has been shoved off onto the salesperson – once the salesperson is eligible for the car allowance. Here is a link to a LeVel pdf explaining all the rules: https://cdn.le-vel.com/en/Documents/VIPAutoBonus.pdf

      “Earn a monthly bonus toward a white or black BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Cadillac, Audi or Tesla”

      On the LeVel site, there is a crawl showing images of salespeople next to white or black upscale cars.

      “Auto Bonus pays $800 monthly at 12K VIP or above.”

      “Must complete and upload Le-Vel auto agreement.”

      Okay, let’s see if I can get that.

      And don’t car leases lock you in for a certain time period? Chris could only get rid of the Lexus at the end of the lease period.

      “If you decide to cancel the lease with the dealership, you can usually expect to take a big loss, and if you have to default on the lease, you can expect a giant blow to your credit rating. Not good for you or your family or your future.”

      “(A friend of ours earned a Porsche way too early in a startup that went belly up. Not only was he stuck with the lease, but the company was no longer around to provide the extra income he was counting on. He came close to losing his house. Ouch.)” http://www.mlm-thewholetruth.com/mlm-articles/beware-the-bmw-burden/

      So that car is actually a sword of Damocles.

      From Lazy Man: https://www.lazymanandmoney.com/le-vel-thrive-scam/

      “Le-vel seems to have the same car “bonus” as other MLMs. The specifics of the car bonus are left out of the compensation brochure. Typically an MLM company requires you to get a lease in your name and reimburses you as long as you maintain the level. However, as many ViSalus distributors found out, when the pyramid implodes they are left with an expensive lease in their name, no bonus from the company, and little income from the business. It’s a path to financial ruin.”

      From here: https://www.talentedladiesclub.com/articles/why-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-mlm-car/

      “Beware signing up for a ‘free’ car you can’t afford”

      “The lesson here is that nothing is truly free in life, and certainly not in an MLM. The gifts they bestow upon you are to ensure you have something to boast about to recruit. And the ‘free’ car is simply a way to demonstrate success, and commit you to continue maintaining your sales level (and that of your downline).”

      “So if you can’t afford to pay for the lease of a car without your MLM bonus, then don’t risk signing up for one. Better still avoid joining an MLM altogether and find a more realistic, sustainable way of earning an income!”

      For someone like Chris who was earning a fixed income that wasn’t particularly large, the house was a crushing burden, and I’ll bet he saw her LeVel car as another burden just waiting to crush the breath out of him.

    • Ralph Oscar

      Here is something from Le-Vel’s policy on unauthorized returns:

      “Should a Brand Promoter refuse delivery of any Le-Vel shipment or request to return any previously purchased product for a refund, such request will be deemed as a voluntary resignation.”

      So there IS no actual “return policy”.

      From here: https://makemoneyonlinescamsexposed.com/le-vel-thrive/

      “Also as a little something to take away from this, when you want to return the product you’re in for a treat. When you find out that these products do not do what it claims it will, most will want to return it and cancel their auto ship orders.”

      “When you try to return your product, it has to be resell-able as well as you will only get 50% of what you paid minus a 10% restocking fee.”

      “So basically when you auto ship stuff from Le Vel Thrive you better sell it or die trying, cause if you try to return it you will lose 60% right off the bat.”

      And from here: https://cdn.le-vel.com/en/Documents/Policies_Procedures.pdf

      “Under no circumstance will Le-Vel split commissions and bonus checks between divorcing spouses or members of dissolving entities. Le-Vel will recognize only one (1) downline organization and will issue only one (1) commission check per Le-Vel business per commission cycle. Commission checks shall always be issued to the same individual or entity. In the event that parties of a divorce or dissolution proceedings are unable to resolve a dispute over the disposition of commissions and ownership of the business, the Agreement shall be involuntarily cancelled. “

    • HB

      It seems she was paid, it was in her Level account because she hadn’t transferred the pay to her checking account yet. Nickole was encouraging Chris to transfer Shanann’s paycheck from the Level account to their joint checking account. Am I reading this wrong?

  2. Kathleen Caraway

    Could Shan’ann has opened another account to put some money aside for a possible split?

  3. CBH

    Both posts above over intriguing ideas as to why the $$$ wasn’t in her account.

    (******Sorry to post this here, but does anyone else have trouble with this site not loading, and then crashing? Happens with the posts and the comments, repeatedly for me for the past 3-4 days.)

    • Clean Queen

      Hi CBH, the site crashing happens to me, but only if I try to enlarge the screen/zoom in on a picture by pulling my fingers apart on the screen. It does happen consistently. Not really a big deal for me, but I could see where it would be quite an issues if your trying to type out a lengthy post.
      One idea for you – I used to have your same problem with other forums. I started typing out my comments or responses in Notes out in on my phone first, then copy and paste into the comment box.

      • CBH

        Thanks, I can try that. But the problem is also that the site itself crashes simply when I come to read it. And I’m not trying to enlarge anything, it just loads slowly then crashes, but other sites are fine. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a WordPress App? Unfortunately I have too many apps on my iPhone and no storage room for more.

      • Clean Queen

        CBH, I really enjoy your commentary, so I hate to hear that the site is being so difficult! The only other thing I could think of would be to view the page in “reader mode”. (For anyone that doesn’t know, that would simply involve clicking on the icon with those 3 to 4 little bars stacked vertically in the top left corner of the screen.)

    • Carol

      Mine was doing that too, then I switched to google chrome and it doesn’t crash….not so far anyways

      • CBH

        I may try that, thanks.

  4. CBH

    I meant OFFER , not over.

  5. CBH

    @Clean Queen,
    Thanks very much! I’ll try that.

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