Robbins Settles Lawsuits by Franchisees : Marketing: Attorney for multimillionaire Del Mar entrepreneur says the empire has never been in better shape.

Anthony J. Robbins, the multimillionaire Wunderkind who lives in a castle overlooking the surf at Del Mar and who made a fortune teaching people to walk barefoot on hot coals, has settled four lawsuits against him and his La Jolla-based research institute.

The lawsuits were filed locally in 1991 by irate franchisees who alleged, among other things, that Robbins failed to grant exclusivity in regions granted to franchise holders, who made “down payments” ranging from $20,000 to $250,000 for the right to market Robbins’ philosophy.

Since his beginnings as the guru of “fire walking,” Robbins has evolved as the focal point of an entrepreneurial empire and as the author of two best-selling books. His half-hour “infomercial,” seen in most cable TV markets, accounts for $60 million in sales.

Robbins says his flagship company, with offices in the Golden Triangle, grosses more than $50 million a year and that he personally has made more than $1 million a year every year since 1985. At 32, he’s the owner of nine companies, including a resort in Fiji.

His seminars range in price from $170 (for a day on sales techniques) to $5,000 (for a two-week “certification” program in Hawaii that covers just about everything Robbins teaches). His line of audio tapes retails for $179.95.

Franchisees selling Robbins seminars were marketing, not personal appearances by the man himself, but Robbins on video, with individual cassettes costing $595. Most of the suits against Robbins alleged fraud, breach of contract or both.

As recently as two months ago, seven suits listing Robbins as defendant were still pending in San Diego County Superior Court.

Larry Sergeant, a Dallas franchise holder and one of those with whom Robbins settled, said in a 1991 interview that Robbins violated his right to “exclusive control” within his own geographical region of north Texas.

“It was obvious the regional distributor--my support person--was competing against me with the blessing of the home office,” Sergeant told The Times. “After all, they’d already gotten my money.”

Sergeant claimed to have lost his initial $20,000 investment and accused Robbins, in the suit, of masterminding a “pyramid” scheme, in which Robbins made money, not from the sale of video seminars, but merely by luring new investors.

Charles Chandler Davis, the Texas attorney who represented Sergeant and three other plaintiffs, said Monday the suits had been “settled amicably.” Davis declined to disclose the amounts of the settlements.

Brad N. Hunsaker, the attorney for Robbins Research International, said of the settlements, “That pretty much puts an end to it. There’s still one outstanding lawsuit in Atlanta, where we’re waiting to go to trial.”

Hunsaker said the firm hopes to settle the Atlanta suit at a mediation conference Aug. 27. He said one other suit, in Florida, is “being negotiated.”

He declined comment on other litigation.

He said the Robbins empire “has never been in better shape” and that the litigation has failed to alter a pattern in which Robbins consistently sells out motivational seminars around the world. Robbins recently sold more than 3,000 tickets, at $300 apiece, to a seminar in Denver.

Since word of the litigation and the ensuing wave of publicity, Robbins has hired the New York-based public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton.

“We’re not trying to polish or improve Tony’s image,” said Greg LaBrache, senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton. “We’re helping him market his products and his books, and, with whatever else he needs. We do an awful lot of things with an awful lot of clients, many of whom are very big names.”

He listed some of the firm’s clients as Pepsi-Cola, Mazda of America, Nintendo and Hitachi.