What Exactly IS Thomas Malucelli’s Multi-Level Marketing Scheme?

The Bachelors’ Thomas Malucelli became our only hope this season for a relatively normal, romantic Bachelor who is looking for his forever partner — no offence to those other two men.

However, you may have seen some buzz around the handsome Italian suitor being involved in a Multi-Level Marketing scheme. Yep, just like those girls from high school who once bullied you, and now jump on Instagram Reels to talk about inner healing and finding their divine feminine energy, and if you sign up to their workshop you’ll find your soulmate in 12.5 hours, especially if you go to bed dabbing some lavender oil behind your left ear.

When Punkee spoke to Thomas in the lead-up to The Bachelors premiering, we asked him directly if he was involved in a pyramid scheme. “It is true, however, I love to call it network marketing company which is different from a scheme,” Thomas told us, referring to Isagenix.

OK then!

CW: This article discusses a brand that advertises products for weight loss and some readers may find it triggering. 

So what exactly is this “network marketing company” Isagenix and what the hell does Thomas do? We decided to investigate.

Introducing Isagenix:

If you dig deep into Thomas’ story on his socials, his journey begins when he was working as a restaurant manager and leading an “unhealthy” life. With long hours, drinks after work, and weekend partying, Thomas decided he wanted to get into shape and signed up for the IsaBody Challenge, a total “body transformation” challenge for Isagenix customers.

Isagenix is a multi-level marketing company that looks to help aid people with weight loss, dietary supplements, and “nutritional cleansing”.

After winning the Australian IsaBody challenge, and then an international one, Thomas was awarded prize money and continued on his Isagenix journey…

Now he works with people to help them make “residual income” by endorsing and selling Isagenix products:

If you’re part of an MLM, you don’t receive a salary, instead you earn money from selling the products to people and recruiting others into the business. When someone you’ve recruited begins earning money, you will commission from the sales generated by that person you recruited, and so forth.

Therefore, it would appear Thomas in his Isagenix journey is able to make a pretty steady passive income if he’s recruited a lot of people who are selling the products. Which it appears he has, as he said himself he’s been recognised as one of the top 10 leaders in action in all of Australia, also stating he’s had times where he’s earned over $6k per week.

The thing about MLM networks is that it benefits people who are top sellers with the money trickling up to them, but the people at the bottom of the pyramid scheme wouldn’t be making enough to actually support a proper lifestyle.

Moving on to the Isagenix products…

Looking at Thomas’ Instagram stories, he heavily promotes Isagenix’s Collagen Elixir in one series, showing amazing transformations from people who have allegedly been taking the supplement.

But even if the results look incredible, it doesn’t come cheap for something that you can’t 100% guarantee will work for you. Browsing through the Isagenix site, a small bottle of the Collagen Elixir will set you back a pretty penny: $262 to be exact, if you’re not on the subscription service for Isagenix, or $198 if you are a subscriber.

Of course, this isn’t the only supplement Isagenix sells. There’s a plethora of wellness and weight loss products the brand recommends. Clicking through on Thomas’ Linktree takes you straight to a “personalised” page of Biohack Isagenix products that could be good for you, and the prices are eye-watering.

Isagenix controversies:

Isagenix has seen its fair share of controversies, like many MLM schemes have. Many products are weight loss focused, many are ‘wellness’ supplements, and the company claims that their products help ‘support the body’s natural detoxification process’ despite there not being a lot of evidence to back that up.

A Sydney Morning Herald article did a deep-dive into Isagenix in 2015, talking to people who have been caught up in the Isagenix community before. Sophia* was one person who shared her story after losing 5kg while using Isagenix products but she quickly became disillusioned after being added to closed Facebook groups that promoted the brand and the sales of it. Sophia stated the groups were full of Isagenix sales people dishing out health advice with no qualifications.