Referring travel agents who sued YTB last year in a class action refiled their complaint in an Illinois federal court on Wednesday.
The RTAs added defendants and attempted to clarify why Illinois consumer-protection laws should apply in a case with national scope.
They also recast the relationships between former RTAs and YTB to more effectively assert their charges under consumer laws, even though the RTA-YTB dealings would typically be viewed as business-to-business relationships.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, the district where YTB maintains its headquarters. The former RTAs charged that the multilevel-marketing travel company operates an illegal pyramid scheme.
In June, the court ruled that plaintiffs who were not Illinois residents did not have standing to sue because the plaintiffs brought their case under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
One plaintiff, John Stull, is an Illinois resident, and he was ordered to file an amended complaint.
The original defendants included four officers: Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, Kim Sorensen and Andrew Cauthen. The newly added defendants include two former board members, Timothy Kaiser and Clay Winfield, plus companies associated with them, Meridian Land Company and Winfield Development.
The expanded list also includes Beryl Martin, a printing company owned by Sorensen and Tomer, and Robert Van Patten, who joined YTB as co-CEO in April.
The plaintiffs said the new defendants assisted YTB and its executives in perpetrating their illegal pyramid scheme.
To make the point that a national case could be pursued under Illinois law, the plaintiffs said they had facts to show that the operation of YTB’s illegal pyramid scheme occurred primarily in Illinois. They also said that because YTB’s business was directed to the market generally, it "implicated consumer-protection concerns."
They repeated their previous demand for $100 million in actual and punitive penalties on behalf of all members of a nationwide class.
Alternatively, the former RTAs pleaded for four smaller classes divided by state, citing relevant law from each of the four states: Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and Utah. The subclasses reflect the home states of the original plaintiffs.
The former RTAs in each subclass sought $10 million in damages.
