Herbalife Is Demanding A Correction From The New York Post After A Report About An FTC Probe That Sent Shares Diving

Julia La Roche for Business Insider

Herbalife, a multi-level marketing company that sells nutrition products, is demanding the New York Post to issue a correction after a report that it's being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Here's the release from Herbalife:

Los Angeles, CA – February 4, 2013 – Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) today issued the following statement following misleading and inaccurate information in the marketplace this morning:

Other than the voluntary dialogue with regulators, which we communicated on our January investor day, we are unaware of any other regulatory interest and/or investigation. We are demanding a correction from the NY Post.

Since its founding in 1980, Herbalife has positively impacted the lives and health of consumers. For a direct selling company of our size, we have had a relatively low number of complaints to the FTC. However, we take every one of them seriously and stand by our record of doing right by our distributors and all consumers of our products.

The New York Post's Michelle Celarier obtained 192 complaints about Herbalife filed with the FTC over the last seven years.

According to the Post's report, the FTC is probing Herbalife. Shares of Herbalife were lower on that news.

The stock was last trading down 3.99% at $33.67, well below the pre-Bill Ackman short levels. The stock hit a low today of $30.84.

Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management is shorting more than 20 million shares of Herbalife and has a price target of $0.

SEE: The FTC Has Released A Gigantic Document Dump Showing Angry Customer Complaints >