FTC Sues Stormy Wellington Over Alleged Get-Rich Scheme
'Six Figures' Or Scam? FTC Sues Stormy Wellington Over Alleged Get-Rich Scheme
Coach Stormy Wellington, a prominent health and wellness coach, is responding to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint, expressing confusion over the origins of the issue.
Source: Photo courtesy of Coach Stormy Wellington’s website / Coach Stormy Wellington speaks out amid FTC complaint.
Popular health guru and motivational speaker Coach Stormy Wellington has been hit with a complaint by The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations she used “false or baseless earning claims” to recruit workers for various multilevel marketing (MLM) companies. According to the FTC complaint released April 13, many of the workers employed by the Florida resident, who has been a high level earner in the MLM space for over two decades, allegedly earned “little or no” money from the ventures she promoted.
Coach Stormy Wellington says she’s going to change her “messaging.”
Wellington was accused of using deceptive earning tactics to recruit members for health and wellness company, Total Life Changes, and cosmetic brand, Farmasi, claiming they could earn five figures or more. According to an exclusive interview with Fox 26 Houston’s Isiah Carey, the health and wellness advocate has since undergone an investigation with the FTC and has signed an “agreement” with the agency vowing not to mislead her followers or recruits, a decision she says “significantly affected” her career.
“I don’t know where this came from. I really don’t know how this happened. My career has been significantly affected by the allegations. But the truth is what has happened is already in the past,” she explained during her interview published April 15. “One of the things that I have to change is my messaging.”
Wellington told Carey that while she strongly believes in, and often teaches, the power of manifestation and affirmations, her experience in recruiting has led her to recognize that “wishful thinking” isn’t effective in direct sales or network marketing. However, she maintains that the recent FTC lawsuit does not diminish the impact of her work in uplifting millions of women and helping increase their earning potential. Coach Stormy Wellington has a large fanbase of African American women who look up to her as an inspiration and seek to work with her for mentorship.
“I tell everybody the same thing. If you go to buy a Tyllenol from the store and it says that it’s going to get rid of your headache and it doesn’t get rid of your headache, did that negate the fact that hundreds of thousands of people took a Tyllenol and it got rid of their headache? It just didn’t work for you… I’m not going to negate what I have done,” Coach Stormy said flat out. “I’m not going to also negate that there are people that may have thought that they were going to make certain money, but didn’t do the work.”
What does the Coach Stormy Wellington complaint allege?
In multi-level marketing (MLM) companies, individual participants sell products or services while also recruiting new members, who in turn do the same. According to the FTC complaint, Wellington benefited from recruiting new participants through allegedly false or misleading income claims. In YouTube videos and social media posts, she allegedly enticed recruits by suggesting they could earn substantial sums, sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
For example, in a Facebook post promoting TLC, she wrote, “I will help 1000 families make 5-7 figures in the next 90 days to 12 months!” the complaint alleges.
Wellington spent a decade with TLC, a company that sells nutrition, wellness, and skincare products, before leaving in August 2025 to join Farmasi, which offers makeup, skincare, and health products. There, she allegedly continued making bold income promises to recruits, stating:
“I’m telling you right now, no less than six figures, no less. Repeat that to me. No less than six figures,” and claiming she would create “60 new millionaires in 2026.”
However, income disclosures from both companies show that most participants did not earn that amount. TLC reported that 76.8% of active participants (23,124 people) earned no compensation in 2023, and only 0.4% (113 people) made more than $5,000. Similarly, Farmasi’s 2023 disclosure indicates that fewer than 1% of participants earned income in the six-figure range she promoted, according to the FTC complaint.
Notably, Isiah Carey also interviewed one of Coach Stormy Wellington’s former recruits, Effie Best, who claimed she lost more than $5,000 purchasing inventory while working with the motivational speaker under one of her MLM ventures. According to Best, after participating in the program from 2018 to 2022, she ultimately walked away with just $28.10.
Reflecting on her experience, Best said, “I don’t know what her standard of do enough work means, because I took the product. I was an avid recipient of the product. I have years of emails of showing that my product was streamlined.”
A settlement is in the works.
Under a proposed settlement with the FTC, Wellington would be barred from misrepresenting, or helping others misrepresent, potential earnings in business ventures. This includes misleading claims made directly or indirectly, such as through depictions of luxury lifestyles, exaggerating actual earnings, or misrepresenting why participants fail to earn significant income. She would also be prohibited from making any earnings claims unless they are truthful, supported by written evidence at the time they are made, and available upon request to prospective participants.
Additionally, Wellington must inform her downline of these restrictions on deceptive or unsubstantiated income claims. The FTC voted 2–0 to authorize the complaint and proposed order, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. It’s unclear if the agreement she signed is a settlement, but Coach Stormy isn’t letting this recent setback bring her down.
On April 14, the MLM expert took to Instagram with a video reassuring fans that she was going to stay focused in the face of adversity.
“LISTEN TO ME!! Adversity isn’t here to stop you, it’s here to PREPARE you!” she captioned the post in part. “People see the glory, but they don’t always understand the GUTS it took to get here. When the world is screaming for you to throw in the towel, that is exactly when you have to tighten your grip!”
She added, “You are NOT a victim of your circumstances; you are the architect of your destiny!”
