Did They Get Rich Quickly? Not Really

"Robert Allen would tell you this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You have to work," said Joe Kilsheimer of IMK Group, a public relations firm that represents the Utah-based Robert Allen Institute.

"I know that in the class, one of the things that they say at the very beginning is that you have to be prepared to devote no less than 10 to 15 hours per week" to the program, Kilsheimer said.

Kilsheimer said he discussed a reporter's questions with Allen this week before the entrepreneur left on a trip to Singapore. Allen has been on the lecture circuit recently as the co-author of "The One-Minute Millionaire," which he wrote with Mark Victor Hansen, author of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

Whitney spokesman David Whitaker in Cape Coral, Fla., said: "We don't make that claim, that we can make someone a millionaire. We offer a fully integrated education and training program."

Longtime seminar critic John T. Reed says most promoters "prey on people that don't have cash or credit" and "suggest that they can make a lot of money easily and quickly." He excludes his own investment programs and a few others.

Bahjat said he was first drawn to a free Allen Institute workshop last February by a full-page ad in The Post, with Allen saying in big type, "My Big Mouth Could Make You a Millionaire!" and, "I'm under deadline to create 1,000 new millionaires in record time! Will you be one of them?" Several Allen sessions were held in the Washington area. The follow-up training camp took place Feb. 21 to 23, 2003, at a Crystal City hotel ballroom.

The Allen "Big Mouth" ad, which ran again last week in the Metro section of the New York Times, says: "See firsthand how to Create Wealth with Real Estate using my powerful strategies, and begin making amazing money right away!"

The Whitney Web site (www.russwhitney.com) promotes its free classes by offering a "Millionaire Mentor™ Entrepreneur Startup Kit For FREE! ($195.00 Value)." Founder Russ Whitney says on his site that he will share "a systematic approach that has made me a multimillionaire."

Reed, a California entrepreneur, criticizes Allen, Whitney and many others on his Web site. "When I got into real estate in 1967," his site says, "there would only have been about ten gurus, all book authors, and all recommended. The all-recommended status continued until 'Nothing Down' author Robert Allen came on the scene in 1979. Ever since, there has been an endless parade of B.S. artists coming into the real-estate-investment-advice field. It is an embarrassment to the good people in the business."

Whitney is suing Reed over some allegations on Reed's Web site and has set up a Web site just to counter the claims (www.whitney-facts-vs-johntreed.com). Reed says he is considering a countersuit.

While the parties trade insults, Federal Trade Commission officials say they stand by their "buyer beware" warnings about investment seminars.

No recent investigation into real estate seminars has been announced, but Seattle FTC lawyer Nadine Samter said a year ago that she was looking into the industry. This month she said, "I can neither confirm nor deny any investigation, but that doesn't mean the agency isn't doing anything."

Samter said the agency has filed few cases because "it's hard to prove that you can't make any money at it. But the reality is, and we all know it, that most people don't."

Regardless of the FTC's concerns, optimists are signing up in droves for free real estate investing classes and for paid training camps to jump into the hot real estate market, according to the seminar sponsors.