Smells like Ponzi path to millions

The ''Millionaire Maker" shakes my hand. We walk across the road and get into her limousine - a converted 1990s Merc with disco lights and a mini-bar. Well, the limo doesn't really belong to Loral Langemeier, but she's using it on her quick media tour of South Africa to zip between radio slots and press interviews.

Langemeier claims she can turn you into a moneymaking machine in three days.

''I've probably made about 2600 millionaires," she drawls in her heavy American accent.

The 40-something blonde grew up in Nebraska.

It's too early to tell if she's created a trail of millionaires in South Africa as she's only presented here once, in May this year.

''We'll see, when the feedback comes in," she said.

She drives home sales and marketing techniques. The product with which she's had the most success is herself.

Out comes a copy of The Millionaire Maker, one of her five best-selling books. (The others have great names: Yes! Energy: The Equation to Do Less, Make More; The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing; The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life and Put More Cash in Your Pocket.)

She uses the book as a prop as we drive around Rosebank and Sandton. Like most Americans who make a living on stage, she talks using a lot of hand gestures.

Langemeier is wearing jeans, looks comfortable, and asks as many questions as she answers.

Every awkward silence is filled by Patrick, who set up this meeting. He is a South African and made the most sales during her seminar in May.

The e-mail he sent to me beforehand read: ''Loral is one of only a handful of women in the world today who can claim the title of 'expert' when it comes to financial matters and the making of millionaires. She accelerates the conversation about money, sharing how to not just survive this tough economic climate, but how to succeed and thrive."

Tough economic climate indeed. She uses ''the depression" to refer to the recent recession in the US.

And what is South Africa like?

''Well, the education is just terrible," she frowns.

But she likes the place. She said we are aggressive sellers, more like Americans, not as timid as Australians.

Next to her, Langemeier has a suitcase full of promotional material - her board game and books. All branded, all part of the deal when she trains people who stay behind as she jets off to her other seminars in Australia, the US and Indonesia.

She obviously gets licensing fees from the second-tier training and the selling-on. It sounds a bit like a pyramid scheme or a Ponzi-type deal, but I don't ask.

The three-day seminar sets you up with a fully functional business, she said. And you start selling to the other people at the conference. Pay R18000 for two people and bring a teenager for free.

She'll be back to make you rich in November.

When I get out of the limo, I am just as much a millionaire as I was before.