Digital Altitude defendants want $100K in “stolen funds” for legal fees
One of the problem MLM scammers have when caught is that outside of the scam they were running, they had no other source of income.
In cases where an injunction is pursued and said scammers assets are frozen, that leaves them with limited options for hiring counsel.
Such is the case with Digital Altitude, Michael Force and Mary Dee, who together are demanding $100,000 to cover legal fees.
The FTC filed opposition to the motion on April 24th.
In their motion the FTC allege
on March 14, 2018, Defendants filed Answers to the Complaint, admitting most of the key facts alleged against them.
In depositions and at the PI hearing, Defendants effectively conceded that they had no basis for their claims to consumers.
The only issue Defendants have not expressly conceded is whether the Individual Defendants had knowledge sufficient to impose individual equitable monetary liability.
And even there, the sworn testimony that the Individual Defendants have already provided precludes any plausible claim of innocent ignorance.
Candidly, the FTC assert the Digital Altitude defendants have no right to defend themselves with “stolen funds”.
That is money Digital Altitude, Michael Force and Mary Dee stole from consumers, around $54 million as per the Receiver’s ongoing analysis.
Being a civil action, the FTC point out that none of the defendants have a right to taxpayer-funded counsel.
Thus the burden of retaining counsel and the associated costs rest entirely on the defendants.
If they can’t afford to pay lawyers because their only source of income for the past few years has been scamming people, so be it.
Considering so far only $2.2 million of the $54 million Digital Altitude scammed people out of has been recovered, one can only wonder where the rest went.
Maybe Force and Dee can ask some of Digital Altitude’s top-earning coaches for a loan?
Or not… clawbacks gonna be a bitch.
At the time of publication the motion for a $100,000 carve-out has yet to be ruled on.
Ironically, if you go to Jesse Singh’s Facebook site today, you’ll see “advice” on how to “brand” yourself vs. the masses.
Shame on you, Mary Dee and Michael Force. What arrogance you two have.
You knowing took millions of dollars with your false claims and have the nerve to say you have the rights to that money.
Get over yourselves and refund those people.
Sell your homes.
Go move into apartments.
Then turn on your Facebook Lives and say you’re sorry.
People would probably give you some money for just doing that.
But, your massive egos would never ever dip to that level.
Slightly incomplete here. In a criminal case (in the US) the accused has the right to council if they can afford an attorney or not, court appointed public defenders.
In a civil case you still have the right to council but it wont come at tax payer expense, you get the best lawyer you can pay for.
Jesse Singh is doing eCommerce now and again those numbers you are posting are total sales across the entire downline.
Not trying to defend him, but just want to give you accurate information.
So that means, his downline generated 4.5 million in sales, and the fact they pay 25% on top tier, he didn’t make that much lol.
So when is FTC going to go after MOBE? They been operating since 2011.
Thanks Glim. That’s what I meant, edited the article for clarification.
@Mike
More misrepresentations from Digital Altitude and Michael Force? You don’t say.
We’ll leave it to the Receiver to sort out.
This saddens me. I was a member and paid all the way to the ASCEND level and made so many risks that I was promised would be investments.
I slaved over my computer endlessly trying to figure things out. I never received any helpful training that I was promised, even at the conference.
It was mostly just a 3 day hype event full of dancing, “success stories” of winners with barely anything concrete to implement.
I even met Michael Force there and took some photos. Never thought that behind that face there’d be such a schemer.
What annoys me further is that neither he, nor any of the top earners have anything to say…. Mack Mills, Jesse Singh, Jason Stone, Chiara Francica, Jason Holland, Ankur….none of them.
While I realize not all of them might be at fault, I’m flabbergasted that nothing has been said, that what sucks the most. I’m still trying to recover from the financial loses from this.
As a veteran with medical problems, more money issues was the last thing I needed. I hoped this was a way out.
Now my life is forever altered with no promise of refunds…
I learned long ago that if many “top marketers” pop up selling the same program, it’s not going to last.
These guys scheme up and plot the next big money grab over barbeque or a private conference call and all agree to promote the offer to their entire subscriber list in a joint venture scheme.
Their public video conference calls always leave out how much capital one really has to invest to market the “system” over several months to recoup their investment and make a decent part-time income.
The enticing pitch is usually…
“Oh! But that’s not all! If you don’t have a list of subscribers we have a done for you system that will take care of the telling, selling and sharing for you for an additional monthly cost.”
In the end, the “top marketers” make out like the top bandits they set out to become from the beginning.