Michael Burton was an overweight used car salesman whose business had gone belly-up before he discovered Herbalife 15 years ago.
The nutritional supplements company changed his life, Burton claimed, saying it first helped him shed nearly 45 pounds and then made him wealthy.
Burton, in a 2000 Herbalife magazine, claimed he earned more than $25,000 a month as a top salesman. With his six-pack abs — he picked up bodybuilding at the same time — he traveled the globe pitching protein shakes.
Just last week at an Herbalife pep rally in Cologne, Germany, Burton tweeted the event was “simply amazing” and posted a video of the happening.
But back home, the person behind this rags-to-riches story was drowning in debt.
Burton, 47, and his wife, Michelle, 46, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this summer, and court papers reveal they had debts of more than $7.15 million, including more than $1 million owed to the IRS.
The couple’s assets were $74,136, according to the July 3 filing in a Plano, Texas, US bankruptcy court.
By the time of the filing, their income had slid to $13,000 a month and they had less than $100 in the bank, according to court papers. Their $1 million Florida home had already been foreclosed, a legal filing in that state shows.
The couple’s most valuable personal property included two guns — a Glock 9mm and a .357 Magnum — worth $1,000, plus $4,000 in furs and jewelry. They also owned a 2012 BMW SUV worth $38,000.
While the exact trigger for the filing isn’t clear, it came days after Herbalife banned the lucrative but controversial practice of buying and selling sales leads. Lead-generation firms troll for sales recruits and could be evidence of pyramid-scheme activity.
The Burtons owed $116,800 to Centurion Media, a so-called Internet lead-generation business, court papers show. An unknown amount was owed to a second lead generator, Ehome Business Network.
The move by the Los Angeles-based Herbalife to ban the purchase of leads came after activist investor Bill Ackman accused the company of being a pyramid scheme and placed a $1 billion short on the stock.
For the once über-successful Burton, the Chapter 7 filing is a comedown.
A year ago in March, Burton was living the high life in a ritzy Dallas suburb when he tweeted, “Getting ready for my new hand made custom suit from Lombardo’s Custom Apparel in Dallas… I love Herbalife.”
The Los Angeles-based company held up Burton — one of nine members of Herbalife’s Sports Council and a President’s Team member — as a success story.
In a phone interview after the Cologne event, Burton told The Post, “The bankruptcy has absolutely nothing to do with Herbalife” and laid his economic struggles on his other businesses that failed. He also claimed the $13,000 per month income listed in court papers is “not actually true.”
The filing may also leave Herbalife a little light.
Court papers show the Burtons owe the company an “unknown” amount of cash under a “personal guaranty of corporate distributorship agreement.”