Top Member Of Herbalife’s Legal Team Leaves Company

 

The NY Post reports: A top member of Herbalife’s legal team has left the building.

Jim Berklas, who was the associate general counsel and chief compliance officer of the Los Angeles company, on Monday joined the Barnes Group, a Connecticut aviation company.

Berklas spent seven years with the diet shake seller that activist Bill Ackman has bet $1 billion is a pyramid scheme.

Herbalife has vehemently denied the accusation.

The exit of Berklas comes less then three months after Herbalife disclosed a criminal probe into its business practices and said a number of top executives and distributors have been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice.

At least one of those distributors, a veteran member of its 60-person “Chairman’s Club,” has become a whistleblower with law enforcement, The Post has learned.

Berklas is the first senior exec to leave Herbalife — led by CEO Michael Johnson— since the Ackman battle began.

The company is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the DOJ.

Herbalife and Berklas did not return calls for comment.