Usana says that nearly 80,000 people have signed up to be so-called "preferred" customers and do not participate as business associates.

"Usana business associates are under no obligation to purchase any amount of products beyond a $20 starter kit," the company said in a statement. "Usana's business model is dependent on consumption of its nutritional products, not the recruitment of associates."

Minkow's past includes a conviction for stock fraud in ZZZZ Best, a rug cleaning business that he started in the early 1980s.

Since serving nearly eight years in prison, Minkow has turned his attention to fighting fraud. He claims to have uncovered 17 major frauds, totaling more than $1 billion.

"I was one of the first bad CEOs," Minkow said. "Before there was Kenneth Lay and Bernie Ebbers, there was me."

Now his attention is focused on Usana, which, he charges, is a "financial crime in progress."

But Usana maintains Minkow's report has misrepresented numerous laboratory reports of its products and is "riddled with exaggerations, half-truths and plainly false statements."

"These false statements are designed not only to devastate Usana as an entity, its products and all of its distributors," the company said in a statement, "but also to line Mr. Minkow's own pockets through a strategy that is the opposite of the classic pump-and-dump: here a 'distort and short."'

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com