Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The Federal Trade Commission sued F & G International Group Holdings, LLC, FG International, LLC, and their principal J. Glenn Davis, alleging they make false or unsubstantiated R-value claims about their architectural coatings products. In July 2020, the FTC sued four companies that sell paint products used to coat buildings and homes, alleging that they deceived consumers about their products’ insulation and energy-savings capabilities. In complaints filed in federal court, the FTC charged that the companies falsely overstated the R-value ratings of the coatings, making deceptive statements about heat flow and insulating power.

Announced in June 2019 as part of a crackdown on illegal robocalls against operations around the country responsible for more than one billion calls, the FTC’s complaint against six corporate and three individual defendants jointly doing business as Second Choice Horizon and CSG Solutions, alleges Raymond Gonzalez, Carlos S. Guerrero, and Joshua Hernandez ran a maze of interrelated operations that used illegal robocalls to contact financially distressed consumers with offers of bogus credit card interest rate reduction services. The FTC contends many of the consumers targeted were seniors. In July 2020, the FTC announced the defendants had settled the Commission’s complaint, and are banned from telemarketing and selling debt relief services.

In December 2018, the operators of a student loan debt relief scheme agreed to pay approximately $1.3 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they pretended to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education or with consumers’ loan servicers, and tricked consumers into believing that illegal upfront fees were being used to pay off their student loans. In July 2020, the FTC announced it was mailing checks totaling more than $1 million to individuals who lost money to the scheme.

The operators of a work-from-home scheme and the CEO of their main affiliate marketing network agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that they used misleading spam emails to lure consumers into buying work-from-home services. 

The Federal Trade Commission took action to halt a scheme that allegedly deceived consumers with mailers supposedly directing them how to obtain federal COVID-19 stimulus benefits, which instead lured them to a used car sale.

The mailers sent by Traffic Jam Events, LLC and its owner, David J. Jeansonne II, were labeled “IMPORTANT COVID-19 STIMULUS DOCUMENTS” and directed consumers to “relief headquarters” to “claim these stimulus incentives,” the FTC alleged in its lawsuit against the company and Jeansonne.

In their complaint against Madera Merchant Services and B&P Enterprises, the Federal Trade Commission and the Ohio Attorney General allege that the companies generated and processed remotely created payment orders (RCPOs) or checks that allowed many unscrupulous merchants, including deceptive telemarketing schemes, to withdraw money from their victims’ bank accounts. The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rules (TSR) specifically prohibits the use of RCPOs in connection with telemarketing sales. The court issued temporary restraining orders against Madera Merchant Services and B&P Enterprises, halting their operations and freezing their assets. The defendants and the FTC have agreed to a stipulated Preliminary Injunction in this matter. The defendants agreed to a settlement with the FTC in 2020 that permanently banned them from payment processing.

In January 2020, the sellers of a pill called ReJuvenation settled FTC charges that they deceptively claimed that their product is a virtual cure-all for age-related ailments—including cell damage, heart attack damage, brain damage, blindness, and deafness. The orders settling the FTC’s complaint prohibit the defendants from making such claims unless they are true and supported by scientific evidence. The orders also require payment of $660,000, which the Commission may use to provide refunds to defrauded consumers. In June 2020, the FTC announced it was sending checks totaling more than $149,000 to consumers who bought the product.