Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The owners and operators of a vast payday lending scheme that overcharged consumers millions of dollars will be permanently banned from the lending industry under the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlement also provides that nearly all outstanding debt—made up entirely of illegal finance charges—held by the company will be deemed as paid in full.

The FTC charged the enterprise with deceptively overcharging consumers millions of dollars and withdrawing money repeatedly from consumers’ bank accounts without their permission.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending 26,698 checks totaling more than $970,000 to consumers who were harmed by a deceptive payday lending scheme that operated under the names Harvest Moon Financial, Gentle Breeze Online, and Green Stream Lending.

In June 2022, the FTC took action against California-based Gravity Defyer Medical Technology Corporation and its owner Alexander Elnekaveh, filing a complaint in federal district court to permanently stop their allegedly deceptive pain-relief claims for Gravity Defyer footwear. In its complaint the FTC alleged that Elnekaveh violated a 2001 order barring him from such allegedly deceptive advertising by making scientifically unsupported claims and using misleading consumer testimonials to sell Gravity Defyer products.

The FTC alleged that the Florida-based scam falsely told consumers that by selling memberships in the defendants’ programs, consumers were likely to earn large sums of money. For example, the website stated, “Consumers will earn between $500 and $12,500 per sale,” and “Every time one of our professionals closes a sale on your behalf, we will send you a huge commission check right to your doorstep.” The defendants allegedly charged consumers a substantial amount of money, ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. The complaint states, however, that the vast majority of consumers who paid the defendants never earned substantial income, and in fact many consumers earned nothing.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending 1,064 checks totaling more than $542,000 to consumers who were harmed by the bogus business and investment scheme.

The FTC alleged that Twitter’s deceptive use of user email addresses and phone numbers violated the FTC Act and the 2011 Commission order.

Publishers Business Services, Inc., along with other defendants previously settled FTC allegations that the defendants deceptively telemarketed magazine subscriptions. The defendants also allegedly harassed consumers at work and at home, in an attempt to get them to pay for the subscriptions, and engaged in other threatening conduct over the phone. In May 2022, the Commission announced a settlement of the monetary component of the order.

In May 2022, the FTC took action against R360 LLC and its owner, Steven Doumar, for deceiving people seeking help for addiction about the evaluation and selection criteria for the treatment centers in their network. The case is the FTC’s first under the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act of 2018. The agency secured a $3.8 million civil penalty judgment against the defendants and an order prohibiting them from continuing to make the same kinds of misrepresentations.