For Your
Information: December 13, 2002 Commission
approval of settlement regarding the collection of offshore assets:
The Commission has approved a settlement regarding the
collection of assets being held in an offshore trust in the Cook Islands on behalf of two
defendants in Affordable Media, LLC. The settlement has been reached with
AsiaTrust Limited (ATL), a non-party in this case and trustee of the offshore trust, with
respect to the assets belonging to Michael and Denyse Anderson, defendants in this matter.
The FTC brought this case in 1998 as part of "Project Risky Business," an
investment fraud sweep. The Andersons ran one of several boiler rooms involved in a Ponzi
scheme that induced consumers to buy a share of the profits from the sales of product
advertised in TV spots placed by the defendants. In April 2000, the court granted the
FTC's motion for a summary judgment against the Andersons, and entered a $20 million
judgment against them.
In September 1999, the United States, on behalf of the FTC,
filed a legal action in the Cook Islands against ATL to recover the Andersons' money.
Through the settlement announced today, ATL has turned over to the FTC $1.2 million from
the Andersons' trust, ending the litigation against it. As a result of this settlement and
the underlying litigation in this case, the FTC collected and maintains approximately $1.4
million in a redress account. A plan to distribute that money to defrauded consumers
currently is pending before the court. The Commission vote to approve the settlement was
5-0. (FTC File No. X980056; staff contact is Gregory A. Ashe, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, 202-326-3719; see press releases dated April 28, June
19, and August 11, 1998.)
Publication of Federal Register notices:
The Commission has approved the publication of a Federal
Register notice extending the time period for submitting public comments regarding issues
addressed at the FTC's recent weight loss advertising workshop. As
detailed in the notice, which will be published shortly and is available on the
Commission's Web site, the public comment period originally announced by the FTC expired
on October 29, 2002, prior to the November 19, 2002 workshop. However, several parties
have expressed an interest in filing post-workshop comments, in response to issues raised
during the workshop. To accommodate these requests, attendees were told that the
Commission would continue to accept written comments. Through the action announced today,
the FTC is extending that public comment period until February 3, 2003. The Commission
vote to approve publication of the Federal Register notice was 5-0. (FTC File No. P024527;
staff contact is Rona Kelner, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 202-326-2752; see
press release dated September 17, 2002).
The Commission has approved the publication of a Federal
Register notice regarding the ceiling on allowable charges for certain disclosures
under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). As detailed in the notice, which will
be published shortly, the ceiling on allowable charges for certain disclosures under the
FCRA, Section 612(a)(1)(A), will remain at $9.00 during 2003. This section of the Act, as
amended in 1996, provides that (with some exceptions) a consumer reporting agency may
charge a reasonable amount for making a disclosure to the consumer, provided the charge
does not exceed a statutory maximum and is indicated to the consumer before the disclosure
is made. The Act provides that the charge may not exceed $8.00, adjusted annually for
inflation, with fractional changes rounded to the nearest 50 cents. The allowable charge
first rose to $9.00 on January 1, 2002. The Commission vote to publish the notice in the
Federal Register was 5-0. (File No. P974805; staff contact is Keith B. Anderson, Bureau of
Economics, 202-326-3428.) |