Meanwhile, a company like the supplement direct seller Herbalife, accused by short seller Bill Ackman and others of being a pyramid scheme, lavishes money on politicians from both parties in the hopes of keeping regulators out of its business. (Ackman has been criticized himself for lobbying members of Congress to crack down on Herbalife. But according to a Reuters article, Herbalife spent many times more on its own lobbying efforts in 2013 than Ackman did).