Oh, gosh, he’s an actual criminal
Now here’s a nice credential for our new Attorney General:
Matthew G. Whitaker, the acting attorney general, served on the advisory board of a Florida company that a federal judge shut down last year and fined nearly $26 million after the government accused it of scamming customers.
The company, World Patent Marketing, “bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars” by promising inventors lucrative patent agreements, according to a complaint filed in Florida by the Federal Trade Commission.
Court documents show that when frustrated consumers tried to get their money back, Scott J. Cooper, the company’s president and founder, used Mr. Whitaker to threaten them as a former federal prosecutor. Mr. Cooper’s company paid Mr. Whitaker nearly $10,000 before it closed.
So Whitaker used his past as a federal prosecutor to threaten cheated customers who wanted their money back.
Whitaker used his past as a federal prosecutor to threaten cheated customers who wanted their money back.
Mr. Whitaker, a former college football player, joined the Justice Department in October 2017 after Mr. Trump watched him as a CNN analyst and approved of his television appearances.
World Patent Marketing was founded in 2014 and had the hallmarks of a legitimate business. It used a splashy website and other marketing materials to “create the impression that they have successfully helped other inventors,” the trade commission said in its complaint.
In reality, the commission said, the Miami Beach company failed to make good on almost every promise it made to consumers, and strung them along for months or years after taking their money.
When prospective customers left their contact information on the company website, an employee would call them back and follow a script: The company was an “invention powerhouse” with an “incredible advisory board,” including Mr. Whitaker, a “former United States attorney who was appointed by President George Bush.”
…
The trade commission complaint said that consumers were told they had to spend about $3,000 for a “Global Invention Royalty Analysis” to begin the process of examining an invention with the goal of getting a patent. After making the payment, the company’s clients were then pitched various packages ranging from approximately $8,000 to about $65,000.
After the company took the money, it typically began ignoring customers, who became frustrated that they were left in the dark. Mr. Cooper would often berate or threaten them when they asked questions or wanted their money back.
“Defendants and their lawyers have threatened consumers with lawsuits and even criminal charges and imprisonment for making any kind of complaint,” the trade commission’s complaint said.
In at least two instances, Mr. Cooper used Mr. Whitaker’s former position as a federal prosecutor to rebuff customers.
Mr. Whitaker, using his Iowa law firm’s email, told a man who had complained to Mr. Cooper that he was a former federal prosecutor and served on the company’s board.
“Your emails and message from today seem to be an apparent attempt at possible blackmail or extortion,” Mr. Whitaker wrote in August 2015. “You also mentioned filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and to smear World Patent Marketing’s reputation online. I am assuming you understand that there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you.”
Wow.
Not only should he not be AG, he should be escorted out of the Justice Department as a matter of urgency.
These people.
But he fits right in with this administration, and most importantly, he passed his audition:
Wow what a great time we live in – the two greatest nuclear powers in the world are both lead by the world’s largest criminal empires.
So what’s Trump’s beef with CNN now? They seem to supply him with talent…
When you think about it, though, this business sounds enough like Trump University to make anyone involved with it part of the Trumpian inner circle. Maybe Trump wants someone who will interfere with any future TU suits, as well.
Yes, it does; I had the same thought. Both are scams of the “tell gullible people that they need to give us tens of thousands of $$ and then they will become rich rich rich” type.
And those same gullible people will go along with massive tax cuts for the rich, because By God they’re going to become one of them any day now, once they reach the end of the rainbow, and once they have, they don’t want their precious, magically earned millions being siphoned off to support layabout, “inner city” welfare types (or, it turns out, schools, or roads, or health care…)
Yeah, those lazy layabouts who do nothing all day but pick up other people’s trash, or ring up their groceries, or stock their groceries on shelves, or serve them food in restaurants, or dump their trash in their office, or…I guess I could go on and on, but I think that pretty much gets a good start.
And those that are really not working? Most of them want to work. Those that don’t, and really do prefer to just draw welfare? So what? They make up a small percentage of the total that are helped, they are human too, and I would rather a handful of slackers get helped by my hard-earned tax dollars than that the rest of the hardworking people who don’t get paid nearly what they are worth don’t get helped. I see it as a package deal.
And meanwhile, all these same gullible people scream about the unions that traditionally helped every worker (including the screamers) get a better wage, better working conditions, and time off. And the new Supreme Court is violently anti-union, and we will likely see further weakening of the few remaining unions until we are back to 1880 – which is really what our evil overlords want, not 1950s, because in the 1950s, there were strong unions, stronger than now social safety net, and a lot less concentration of wealth at the top (not to mention, higher taxes). I’m not extolling the 1950s – women and minorities didn’t fare well, nor did the poor – but just pointing out that our corporate leaders have something even more restrictive in mind. Closed shops, child labor, etc.
I’ve thought the same thing. Wouldn’t bother me a bit. Better that a few “undeserving” get money than those who really need it be deprived. But being poor is a crime, not a motivation to help people out. Social assistance, welfare, and employment insurance are all stigmatised to discourage those who need it from seeking it, even when they’ve paid into it through taxes.They wouldn’t be poor if God didn’t think they deserved it. Wealth is a clear and foolproof indication of Divine Favour.