Herbalife has decades of profits from selling wannabe Herbalife distributors a dream of financial independence they'll never achieve though, which might be unethical but is a bit less likely to lose your pension fund money than a company accused of getting 73% of its earnings from a deal with a convicted fraudster...

Whenever someone says nowadays, they're highlighting recency bias. The goals of holding a broad market ETF are diversification leading to sleeping well over the long term (at least to me).

Crime pays. But when you go that far, why stop at investing in scams? Surely you can make money faster by robbing old ladies at knifepoint?

How well do SCAM500 stocks do over a time period that includes two recessions, compared to SP500 ones?

I've no doubt that the short-term gains during a bull market on all sorts of garbage are significant.