$10.8 mill judgement in Sean Brown Digital Altitude settlement
Following on from news a settlement between Sean Brown and the FTC had been reached back in July, details of the settlement have now been made public.
Sean Brown’s Digital Altitude settlement enters a permanent injunction and monetary order against him.
The injunction permanently prohibits Brown from having pretty much anything to do with a Business Coaching Program or investment opportunity.
Brown is also prohibited from engaging in fraud related to merchant accounts, and misrepresenting facts related to Digital Altitude, as brought forward in the FTC’s complaint.
The monetary judgment component of the settlement comes to $10.8 million.
The bulk of that amount is to be recovered from known assets and amounts, as per a sworn financial statement and declaration, with the remaining balance suspended.
Other than a few thousand held in a JPMorgan Chase account and with Putnam Investments, unfortunately the settlement order doesn’t contain specific dollar amounts.
Identified assets belonging to Brown however includes any interest Brown had in
- any Digital Altitude accounts and assets and
- cash and assets already seized by the Receiver
This includes any assets Brown has an interest in that are yet to be seized or that may be seized in the future.
Looking forward, the agreement stipulates Brown must submit a compliance report with the SEC a year from now.
He also has to inform the SEC of updates to his personal details and business interests for twenty years.
Individual records for any business Brown has anything to do with must be retained and made available to the SEC for up to five years (over the same rolling twenty year period).
In related news, a discovery hearing that was scheduled to be heard yesterday has been continued.
Michael Force and Mary Dee were scheduled to appear in court and explain why discovery they’d provided to the SEC contained “glaring omissions and inadequacies”.
On September 7th the FTC informed the court that Force and Dee
have since provided responses and produced certain documents.
After significant correspondence with Defendants, FTC counsel now believes that the discovery responses of Defendants Michael Force, Mary Dee, and Thermography for Life, LLC, also d/b/a Living Exceptionally, Inc. are substantially complete.
Discovery related to Digital Altitude as a corporate entity is still outstanding.
Back in April the FTC filed for default judgment against Digital Altitude. Both the FTC and court have acknowledged that discovery issues pertaining to Digital Altitude are moot if default judgment is granted, so the matter is likely to be settled pending a decision on default judgment.
Stay tuned…
Does this mean Sean Brown is on the hook for $10.8M to pay back?
It means the FTC and Receiver have stripped him of everything they can, based on what Brown has represented he has to to them under penalty of perjury.
The rest of the judgment (how much we don’t know) is suspended.
Time to go after some of those big earners like Mack Mills and strip them, too.
Did they get refunds from the big earners and Mack Mills?
Only insiders at this point. For whatever reason the Digital Altitude Receiver didn’t go after net-winners.