Plenty of celebrities have expressed their support for supplement giant AG1 - but an investigation has dug up some questionable details about the company's founder.
Founder Chris Ashenden has resigned amid a Newsroom investigation that raised questions over his criminal history and unpaid fines and reparations by his now-defunct firms.
Newsroom Pro managing editor Jonathan Milne says Ashenden's refusal to be interviewed set off journalistic 'alarm bells'.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather do for ce Ellen, Joe Rogan loves it. Gwyneth
Paltrow loves it. Lewis Hamilton loves it. I'm talking about
ag One, which is a billion dollar supplement company founded
by a New Zealander Chris Ashington. Now, the entrepreneur has
quit as the chief executive and the reason he's done
that has come after a newsroom investigation challenged him on
the company's revenues and claims that the product has made
in New Zealand. Now, Jonathan Milne is newsroom pros managing
(00:23):
editor and he and maker of the Powder Keg podcast,
which is what this is all about. It is with
us Now, John Oh, how are you doing very well?
Thank you? How did he get endorsements like this? I
mean those are massive names.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Look, this company is like one of the biggest social
media operators in the world. Sorry, social influencer operators. There
there's stars in this in this arena. But you know
that kind of influence doesn't come cheap. And Rogan Herberman,
they're getting millions from ag one to endorse it. The
new CEO of ag One herself says that they are
(00:56):
the third biggest ad spender in audio in the world.
So this is a massive, massive marketing spend and.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's massive overseas, but not here. Why is it not here?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, that's really interesting. That's actually one of the things
that piqued my interest about this in the first place,
because I found out about this guy. You know, my
wife played me this at this podcast and she said,
check out this head you know, and made in New Zealand,
made for nearly everybody, and I'd never heard of it,
and it was made by this Kiwi guy, and I thought, well,
this is absolutely fascinating. But when I started digging a
(01:29):
little bit, well, when he wouldn't front for an interview,
because you know what, big corporate doesn't want to spook
their product on free media. When he wouldn't front for
an interview, I just started a few journalistic alarm bells
started to ring, and so I started digging around a
little bit further and found found in the gazettees, the
New Zealand Gazette which never forgets, you know, sort of.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
This ancient record of journalism.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It records bad stuff that be done for a very
long time. And I found out that that he'd actually
declared himself bankrupt, owing three million dollars I think that's
why he doesn't market his own product to New Zealand,
even though it's made ind and he boasts about it
being made in New Zealand. I think the reason that
he doesn't market it here is because he knows that
it's going to come back to bite him.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
But so what I mean, lots of people who've done
who go on to be very successful business people have
in the past been bankrupted.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, and I agree absolutely, And I think everyone to
get a second chance, right. You know, we've all done
stuff we regret, we've all made mistakes, and we all
should be given a chance to go on. But what
he's gone on to do is try to spin his
way out out of us and try to hide it.
And if it was a simple case that he had
done some bad stuff in the past, and he did
burn a lot of people, and I've talked to a
(02:42):
lot of people who got really badly vulnerable, people who
tried to get into their first homes and thought they
were on the property ladder. Turned out he never handed
the data title over to them. So he did get convicted.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's not a decent bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's you know, it's not a good on a bankruptcy.
I don't know what that looks like, but but you know,
I could even forgive them that if he said, I'm sorry,
I got it wrong, and I'll pay my reparations because
you know what, I'm a multi millionaire now. I will
pay one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in fines
and reparations at the New Zealand courts ordered me to
pay to these people who are on the bones of
(03:17):
their ass and will never own their own home now
they're at retirement age or they're approaching retirement age. This
was their one chance to get on the property ladder
in South Auckland or in Viicago where he ran his schemes,
and it's never going to happen for them now an apology.
He has now delivered an apology to them via a
statement to me. He has said he deeply apologized for
(03:39):
any hurt that was caused, but he refuses to talk
about that one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in
fines and reparations that he's never paid.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Johnny, you also said that the stuff is made in
New Zealand. But it's not, is it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Look it is. Some of it is some of it is.
There's a contract manufacturer that used to make all of
it and they have now up back dramatically and shifted
a lot of that production to Utah in the United States.
So that's going to be hard for that manufacturing company.
And it also means that they've kept on since they
(04:10):
started doing that, shifting so much their production to Utah,
they kept on marketing it is being made in New
Zealand for the subsequent two years until I asked questions
about it, and then they started pulling those ads. I
have talked to the Commerce Commission about this. They're not happy,
they've they've they're very hard line on companies marketing their
products as made in New Zealand or produced New Zealand
(04:31):
or from New Zealand when they're not.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Obviously reasons. You know New Zealand. You know our image,
our brand image a New Zealanders is with billions of
dollars in this country. We need to keep it clean.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Now does the stuff work? Does it do what it says?
It does?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Look Like you said earlier, the scientific evidence just ain't
there yet. I tried it, did you. Yeah? I went
to great links to get a whole lot shipped into
the country.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
By looking a little unwell at the moment, I'm just joking.
I mean, I'm going to get sued now as well
for saying that, just like I'm going to to you,
I tell me, what does it taste like? What is
it like?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I could tell you that that's that's like the sort
of that's the big unveil A right taste like banana,
taste like banana. It's actually quite nice. It's really habit forming.
I took it every morning for a couple of months.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Why is it habit for me?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It it tastes nice, and I don't really I don't
really get it. Yeah, I think I get up early
in the morning, you know, I get up at three
or four am to write a morning newsletter. I make
myself a big bloody pot of coffee, a black coffee,
and for two months I made myself a shaker of
age you one and I have a sort of side
by side healthy coffee, healthy coffee. And it tasted good
(05:39):
and it was just a ritual. And I don't have
breakfast for like six hours into my day or something,
and so it's just it's just something that I could
do that I enjoyed, and I felt a little bit
sad when I stopped taking it, and that I mean,
you laugh. But that habit forming that's absolutely critical to
their business, bottle of that and social influencers because they've
got a subscription model, and as you said, as some
(06:00):
of your listeners said, you can't buy it in New Zealand,
so and you can't buy it over the counter anywhere,
so people have to get it from the company. And
a monthly subscription costs a bomb one hundred US dollars
a month. If they're going to keep people paying for
that money and keep them on subscription, they need to
form a habit. It's critical to them. Why did he quit, Look,
(06:22):
he's he has not confirmed that it was because of
the questions we were asking. We were asking some pretty
robust questions about the level of his disclosure of his
criminal records. He did, but this year he said that
he didn't hadn't committed any crimes. He said that he'd
never had an arrest warrant issued against him. He said
(06:43):
that he'd paid all his fines and reparations. Now we're
able to demonstrate him with court papers that there's demonstrate
demonstrably and couraged monsterrably demonstrats start.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Then Yeah, I don't have to pronounce it's totally wrong.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Those three claims are wrong. And this was just a
few months ago in a big meeting that he had
with his staff, and presumably he's been saying telling us
board the same thing. Now. That can't go down well
when we're able to go back to them and say, actually,
here's the evidence at what you're telling your company now,
what you're telling your customers now, and what you're probably
telling your board now. I haven't set in on the
board meetings. I hastened to add, but it's not it's
(07:23):
not true.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, all right, what's the what's the podcast called?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It's called Powder Keg. It's on the Dove chournel from
from newsroom and I just want to very quickly say
thank you very much to the Brian Gainer Initiatives. They
helped fund the podcasts and without them we wouldn't have
been able to do that. So they're supporting public in
trist journalism yadem Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Absolutely, JOHNO, thank you for coming and really appreciate it
and best of luck with it. As Jonathan Mille, Newsroom
pro Managing Editor and the Powder Key and obviously behind
the Powder Key podcast. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Heather do for ce Ellen, Joe Rogan loves it. Gwyneth
Paltrow loves it. Lewis Hamilton loves it. I'm talking about
ag One, which is a billion dollar supplement company founded
by a New Zealander Chris Ashington. Now, the entrepreneur has
quit as the chief executive and the reason he's done
that has come after a newsroom investigation challenged him on
the company's revenues and claims that the product has made
in New Zealand. Now, Jonathan Milne is newsroom pros managing
(00:23):
editor and he and maker of the Powder Keg podcast,
which is what this is all about. It is with
us Now, John Oh, how are you doing very well?
Thank you? How did he get endorsements like this? I
mean those are massive names.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Look, this company is like one of the biggest social
media operators in the world. Sorry, social influencer operators. There
there's stars in this in this arena. But you know
that kind of influence doesn't come cheap. And Rogan Herberman,
they're getting millions from ag one to endorse it. The
new CEO of ag One herself says that they are
(00:56):
the third biggest ad spender in audio in the world.
So this is a massive, massive marketing spend and.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's massive overseas, but not here. Why is it not here?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, that's really interesting. That's actually one of the things
that piqued my interest about this in the first place,
because I found out about this guy. You know, my
wife played me this at this podcast and she said,
check out this head you know, and made in New Zealand,
made for nearly everybody, and I'd never heard of it,
and it was made by this Kiwi guy, and I thought, well,
this is absolutely fascinating. But when I started digging a
(01:29):
little bit, well, when he wouldn't front for an interview,
because you know what, big corporate doesn't want to spook
their product on free media. When he wouldn't front for
an interview, I just started a few journalistic alarm bells
started to ring, and so I started digging around a
little bit further and found found in the gazettees, the
New Zealand Gazette which never forgets, you know, sort of.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
This ancient record of journalism.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It records bad stuff that be done for a very
long time. And I found out that that he'd actually
declared himself bankrupt, owing three million dollars I think that's
why he doesn't market his own product to New Zealand,
even though it's made ind and he boasts about it
being made in New Zealand. I think the reason that
he doesn't market it here is because he knows that
it's going to come back to bite him.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
But so what I mean, lots of people who've done
who go on to be very successful business people have
in the past been bankrupted.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, and I agree absolutely, And I think everyone to
get a second chance, right. You know, we've all done
stuff we regret, we've all made mistakes, and we all
should be given a chance to go on. But what
he's gone on to do is try to spin his
way out out of us and try to hide it.
And if it was a simple case that he had
done some bad stuff in the past, and he did
burn a lot of people, and I've talked to a
(02:42):
lot of people who got really badly vulnerable, people who
tried to get into their first homes and thought they
were on the property ladder. Turned out he never handed
the data title over to them. So he did get convicted.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's not a decent bankruptcy.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's you know, it's not a good on a bankruptcy.
I don't know what that looks like, but but you know,
I could even forgive them that if he said, I'm sorry,
I got it wrong, and I'll pay my reparations because
you know what, I'm a multi millionaire now. I will
pay one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in fines
and reparations at the New Zealand courts ordered me to
pay to these people who are on the bones of
(03:17):
their ass and will never own their own home now
they're at retirement age or they're approaching retirement age. This
was their one chance to get on the property ladder
in South Auckland or in Viicago where he ran his schemes,
and it's never going to happen for them now an apology.
He has now delivered an apology to them via a
statement to me. He has said he deeply apologized for
(03:39):
any hurt that was caused, but he refuses to talk
about that one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars in
fines and reparations that he's never paid.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Johnny, you also said that the stuff is made in
New Zealand. But it's not, is it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Look it is. Some of it is some of it is.
There's a contract manufacturer that used to make all of
it and they have now up back dramatically and shifted
a lot of that production to Utah in the United States.
So that's going to be hard for that manufacturing company.
And it also means that they've kept on since they
(04:10):
started doing that, shifting so much their production to Utah,
they kept on marketing it is being made in New
Zealand for the subsequent two years until I asked questions
about it, and then they started pulling those ads. I
have talked to the Commerce Commission about this. They're not happy,
they've they've they're very hard line on companies marketing their
products as made in New Zealand or produced New Zealand
(04:31):
or from New Zealand when they're not.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Obviously reasons. You know New Zealand. You know our image,
our brand image a New Zealanders is with billions of
dollars in this country. We need to keep it clean.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Now does the stuff work? Does it do what it says?
It does?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Look Like you said earlier, the scientific evidence just ain't
there yet. I tried it, did you. Yeah? I went
to great links to get a whole lot shipped into
the country.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
By looking a little unwell at the moment, I'm just joking.
I mean, I'm going to get sued now as well
for saying that, just like I'm going to to you,
I tell me, what does it taste like? What is
it like?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I could tell you that that's that's like the sort
of that's the big unveil A right taste like banana,
taste like banana. It's actually quite nice. It's really habit forming.
I took it every morning for a couple of months.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Why is it habit for me?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
It it tastes nice, and I don't really I don't
really get it. Yeah, I think I get up early
in the morning, you know, I get up at three
or four am to write a morning newsletter. I make
myself a big bloody pot of coffee, a black coffee,
and for two months I made myself a shaker of
age you one and I have a sort of side
by side healthy coffee, healthy coffee. And it tasted good
(05:39):
and it was just a ritual. And I don't have
breakfast for like six hours into my day or something,
and so it's just it's just something that I could
do that I enjoyed, and I felt a little bit
sad when I stopped taking it, and that I mean,
you laugh. But that habit forming that's absolutely critical to
their business, bottle of that and social influencers because they've
got a subscription model, and as you said, as some
(06:00):
of your listeners said, you can't buy it in New Zealand,
so and you can't buy it over the counter anywhere,
so people have to get it from the company. And
a monthly subscription costs a bomb one hundred US dollars
a month. If they're going to keep people paying for
that money and keep them on subscription, they need to
form a habit. It's critical to them. Why did he quit, Look,
(06:22):
he's he has not confirmed that it was because of
the questions we were asking. We were asking some pretty
robust questions about the level of his disclosure of his
criminal records. He did, but this year he said that
he didn't hadn't committed any crimes. He said that he'd
never had an arrest warrant issued against him. He said
(06:43):
that he'd paid all his fines and reparations. Now we're
able to demonstrate him with court papers that there's demonstrate
demonstrably and couraged monsterrably demonstrats start.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Then Yeah, I don't have to pronounce it's totally wrong.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Those three claims are wrong. And this was just a
few months ago in a big meeting that he had
with his staff, and presumably he's been saying telling us
board the same thing. Now. That can't go down well
when we're able to go back to them and say, actually,
here's the evidence at what you're telling your company now,
what you're telling your customers now, and what you're probably
telling your board now. I haven't set in on the
board meetings. I hastened to add, but it's not it's
(07:23):
not true.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, all right, what's the what's the podcast called?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It's called Powder Keg. It's on the Dove chournel from
from newsroom and I just want to very quickly say
thank you very much to the Brian Gainer Initiatives. They
helped fund the podcasts and without them we wouldn't have
been able to do that. So they're supporting public in
trist journalism yadem Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Absolutely, JOHNO, thank you for coming and really appreciate it
and best of luck with it. As Jonathan Mille, Newsroom
pro Managing Editor and the Powder Key and obviously behind
the Powder Key podcast. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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