Latest / Best of Business / Jonathan Milne: Newsroom Pro managing editor on AG1's founder resigning following criminal history investigation

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Jonathan Milne: Newsroom Pro managing editor on AG1's founder resigning following criminal history investigation · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalks'd be follow this
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  Speaker 2: Heather do for Cela, Joe Rogan loves it, Gwyneth Paltrow
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  Speaker 2: loves it. Lewis Hamilton loves it. I'm talking about ag one,
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  Speaker 2: which is a billion dollar supplement company founded by a
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  Speaker 2: New Zealander Chris Ashington. Now, the entrepreneur has quit as
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  Speaker 2: the chief executive and the reason he's done that it
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  Speaker 2: has come after a newsroom investigation challenged him on the
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  Speaker 2: company's revenues and claims that the product has made in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. Now, Jonathan Milne is Newsroom pros managing editor
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  Speaker 2: and he and maker of the Powder Keg podcast, which
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  Speaker 2: is what this is all about. It is with us.
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  Speaker 2: Hey John, oh, how you doing very well? Thank you?
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  Speaker 2: How did he get endorsements like this? I mean those
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  Speaker 2: are massive names.
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  Speaker 3: Look, this company is like one of the biggest social
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  Speaker 3: media operators in the world. Sorry social influencer operators. There
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  Speaker 3: there's stars in this in this arena, but you know
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  Speaker 3: that kind of influence doesn't come cheap. And Rogan Heuberman,
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  Speaker 3: they're getting millions from eighty one to endorse it. The
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  Speaker 3: new CEO of ag One herself says that they are
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  Speaker 3: the third biggest ad spender in audio in the world.
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  Speaker 3: So this is a massive, massive marketing spend.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's massive overseas, but not here. Why is
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  Speaker 2: it not here?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really interesting. That's actually one of the things
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  Speaker 3: that piqued my interest about this in the first place,
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  Speaker 3: because I found out about this guy. You know, my
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  Speaker 3: wife played me this at this podcast and she said,
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  Speaker 3: check out this ad, you know, made in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: made for nearly everybody, and I'd never heard of it,
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  Speaker 3: and it was made by this Kiwi guy, and I thought, well,
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  Speaker 3: this is absolutely fascinating. But when I started digging a
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  Speaker 3: little bit, well, when he wouldn't front for an interview,
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  Speaker 3: because you know what, big corporate doesn't want to spreak
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  Speaker 3: their product on free media. When he wouldn't front for
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  Speaker 3: an interview, I just started a few journalistic alarm bells
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  Speaker 3: started to ring, and so I started digging around a
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  Speaker 3: little bit further and found found in the gazettes. The
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand Gazette, which never forgets, you know, the sort
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  Speaker 3: of ancient record of journalism. It records bad stuff that
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  Speaker 3: build done for a very long time, and I found
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  Speaker 3: out that he'd actually declared himself bankrupt, owing three million dollars.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's why he doesn't market his own product
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand, even though it's made Insand and he
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  Speaker 3: boasts about it being made in New Zealand. I think
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  Speaker 3: the reason that he doesn't market it here is because
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  Speaker 3: he knows that it's going to come back to bite him.
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  Speaker 2: But so what I mean, lots of people who've done
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  Speaker 2: who go on to be very successful business people have
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  Speaker 2: in the past been bankrupted.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I agree absolutely, And I think everyone to
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  Speaker 3: get a second chance, right. You know, we've all done
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  Speaker 3: stuff we regret, We've all made mistakes, and we all
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  Speaker 3: should be given a chance to go on. But what
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  Speaker 3: he's gone on to do is try to spin his
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  Speaker 3: way out out of us and try to hide it.
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  Speaker 3: And if it was a simple case that he had
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  Speaker 3: done some bad stuff in the past, and he did
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  Speaker 3: burn a lot of people, and I've took to a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people who got really badly vulnerable, people who
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  Speaker 3: tried to get into their first homes and thought they
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  Speaker 3: were on the property ladder. Turned out he never handed
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  Speaker 3: the data title over to them, so he did get convicted.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a decent bankruptcy.
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  Speaker 3: It's you know, it's not a good on a bankruptcy.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know what that looks like. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: I could even forgive them that if he said, I'm sorry,
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  Speaker 3: I got it wrong, and I'll pay my reparations, because
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  Speaker 3: you know what, I'm a multi millionaire now I will
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  Speaker 3: pay one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in fines
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  Speaker 3: in reparations at the New Zealand courts ordered me to
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  Speaker 3: pay to these people who are on the bones of
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  Speaker 3: their ass and will never own their own home now
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  Speaker 3: they're at retirement age or they're approaching retirement age. This
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  Speaker 3: was their one chance to get on the property ladder
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  Speaker 3: in South Auckland or in Viicago where he ran his schemes,
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  Speaker 3: and it's never going to happen for them now. An apology.
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  Speaker 3: He has now delivered an apology to them via a
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  Speaker 3: statement to me. He has said he deeply apologized for
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  Speaker 3: any hurt that was caused, but he refuses to talk
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  Speaker 3: about that one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in
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  Speaker 3: fines and reparations that he's never paid.
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  Speaker 2: Johnny, you also said that the stuff is made in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand, but it's not, is it?
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  Speaker 3: Look is some of.
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  Speaker 1: Some of it is.
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  Speaker 3: There's a contract manufacturer that used to make all of it,
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  Speaker 3: and they have now cut back dramatically and shifted a
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  Speaker 3: lot of that production to Utah in the United States.
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  Speaker 3: So that's going to be hard for that manufacturing company.
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  Speaker 3: And it also means that they've kept on since they
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  Speaker 3: started doing that, shifting so much of their production to Utah,
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  Speaker 3: they kept on marketing it is being made in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand for the subsequent two years until I asked questions
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  Speaker 3: about it, and then they started pulling those ads. I
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  Speaker 3: have talked to the Commerce Commission about this. They're not happy,
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  Speaker 3: they've they've they're very hard line on companies marketing their
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  Speaker 3: products as made in New Zealand or produced in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand or from New Zealand when they're not.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for obvious reasons.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously reasons. You know New Zealand, you know our image,
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  Speaker 3: our brand images New Zealanders is with billions of dollars
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  Speaker 3: in this country. We need to keep it clean.
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  Speaker 2: Now, does the stuff work? Does it do what it says?
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  Speaker 2: It does?
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  Speaker 3: Look like you said earlier, the scientific evidence just ain't
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  Speaker 3: there yet. I tried it, did you. Yeah, I went
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  Speaker 3: to great links to get a whole lot shipped into
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  Speaker 3: the country.
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  Speaker 2: By looking a little unwell at the moment, I'm just joking.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm going to get sued now as well
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  Speaker 2: for saying that.
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  Speaker 3: Just like you, I'm going to see you.
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  Speaker 2: I tell me, what does it taste like? What is
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  Speaker 2: it like?
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  Speaker 3: I could tell you that that's that's like the sort
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  Speaker 3: of that's the big unveil. Yeah, right, it tastes like banana.
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  Speaker 3: Does it taste that banana? It's actually quite nice. It's
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  Speaker 3: really habit for me. I took it every morning for
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  Speaker 3: a couple of months.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it habit for me?
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  Speaker 3: It tastes nice, and I don't I don't really I
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  Speaker 3: get it. Yeah, I think. I get up early in
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  Speaker 3: the morning, you know, I get up at three or
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  Speaker 3: four am to write a morning newsletter. I make myself
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  Speaker 3: a big bloody pot of coffee, a black coffee, and
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  Speaker 3: for two months I made myself a shaker of age.
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  Speaker 3: You one and I have a sort of side by
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  Speaker 3: side healthy coffee, healthy coffee, And it tasted good and
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  Speaker 3: it was just a ritual and I don't have breakfast
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  Speaker 3: for like six hours into my day or something, and
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  Speaker 3: so it's just it's just something that I could do
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  Speaker 3: that I enjoyed, and I felt a little bit sad
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  Speaker 3: when I stopped taking it, and that I mean, you laugh.
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  Speaker 3: But that habit forming that's absolutely critical to their business model.
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  Speaker 3: That and social influencers, because they've got a subscription model
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  Speaker 3: and as you said, as some of your listeners said,
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  Speaker 3: you can't buy it in New Zealand, so and you
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  Speaker 3: can't buy it over the counter anywhere, so people have
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  Speaker 3: to get it from the company. And a monthly subscription
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  Speaker 3: costs a bomb one hundred US dollars a month. If
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  Speaker 3: they're going to keep people paying for that money and
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  Speaker 3: keep them on subscription, they need to form a habit.
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  Speaker 3: It's critical to them. Why did he quit, Look, he's
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  Speaker 3: he has not confirmed that it was because of the
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  Speaker 3: questions we were asking. We were asking some pretty robust
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  Speaker 3: questions about the level of his disclosure of his criminal records.
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  Speaker 3: He did, but this year he said that he didn't
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  Speaker 3: hadn't committed any crimes. He said that he'd never had
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  Speaker 3: an arrest warrant issued against him. He said that he'd
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  Speaker 3: paid all his fines and reparations. Now we're able to
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  Speaker 3: demonstrate him with court papers that there's demonstrate demonstrably incouraged
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  Speaker 3: monsterbly demonstrations. Three am start. Then yeah, I don't, I
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  Speaker 3: don't have to pronounce words.
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  Speaker 2: It's totally wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Those three claims are wrong. And and this was just
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  Speaker 3: a few months ago in a big meeting that he
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  Speaker 3: had with his staff. And presumably he's been saying board
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  Speaker 3: telling us board the same thing. Now that can't go
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  Speaker 3: down well when we're able to go back to them
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  Speaker 3: and say, actually, here's the evidence that what you're telling
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  Speaker 3: your company now, what you're telling your customers now, and
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  Speaker 3: what you're probably telling your board now. I haven't sat
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  Speaker 3: in on the board meetings, I hastened to add, but
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  Speaker 3: it's not it's not true.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, what's the what's the podcast called.
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  Speaker 3: It's called powder Keg. It's on the Dove joannel from
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  Speaker 3: from newsroom. And I just want to very quickly say
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  Speaker 3: thank you very much to the Brian Gainer Initiatives. They
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  Speaker 3: helped fund the podcast and without them we wouldn't have
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  Speaker 3: been able to do that. So they're supporting publicans journalism.
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  Speaker 2: Yam, Yeah, absolutely, Johno, thank you for coming and really
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it and best of luck with it. As Jonathan
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  Speaker 2: Mille Newsroom Pro Managing Editor and The powder Key and
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  Speaker 2: obviously behind the powder Key podcast.
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