Another YTB board member resigns, becomes legal consultant

For the second time since the company’s legal troubles began in August, a member of the board of directors of YTB International is stepping down.

This time, though, he’s stepping down to help them fight off those legal troubles.

Burt Saunders, who joined the board of the Wood River-based online travel company in April, will resign at the end of the year “to focus on future duties as a legal consultant to the company,” YTB said in a regulatory filing Friday. When he begins those duties in January, Saunders will be paid $12,000 a month, plus office expenses, to work 20 hours a week.

“We are honored to have a person of Burt’s caliber and experience and look forward to his leadership in guiding our legal team,” said J. Scott Tomer, the company’s chief executive.

Saunders is a longtime Florida politician who served in the State Senate until this year, when he had to step down because of term limits. He ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. House of Representatives and during the campaign was criticized by opponents for his involvement with YTB, which was sued in August by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who calls the company “a gigantic pyramid scheme.” Last year, a top YTB sales director was investigated in Florida, but no charges or lawsuit were ever filed there.

John Simmons, a prominent Madison County trial lawyer, resigned from YTB’s board earlier this year, after the California lawsuit was filed. With Saunders’ departure, the company will have only three people on its nine-member board who do not either work for YTB or own companies that do business with it.

The company has seen business and stock prices slump in recent months and is fighting both the California lawsuit and two class-action suits in federal court in East St. Louis. It has recently said it will sell assets including an office building, land and its private jet, to help boost cash reserves.