Gary Cardone and his ex-wife Monica Eaton Cardone in Happier Times
Grant Cardone’s twin brother Gary Cardone and his ex-wife Monica Eaton Cardone have been sued by the US Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida. The complaint alleges fraudulent business practices engaged in by their jointly-owned company Chargebacks911.
The lawsuit was summarized in a report by Florida Daily:
According to the complaint, Chargebacks911 helped disreputable businesses reject consumer credit card chargeback requests. The complaint states that Chargebacks911 regularly sent screenshots on behalf of client businesses to credit card companies that supposedly show that consumers agreed to the disputed charges cited in the chargeback request—often recurring monthly subscription charges. The complaint alleges that, in many instances, these screenshots are not from the website where consumers made the disputed purchases and that the company ignored clear warning signs of the website screenshots being misleading.
The complaint also charges that Chargebacks911 used a system called Value Added Promotions, allowing the company’s clients to run numerous small-dollar transactions via prepaid debit cards. By doing so, clients could raise their total number of transactions, lowering the percentage of charges disputed by consumers. The percentage of chargebacks a company faces plays a role in the level of scrutiny a company receives from credit card companies; a higher percentage of disputed charges will likely lead to more scrutiny.
The allegations that Chargebacks911 provides false documentation to aid and abet scammers online is an extremely serious matter. We are surprised this did not become a criminal matter because the charges, in our opinion, rise to the level of conspiracy and racketeering.
Aaron Smith-Levin reported on this story on his SPTV Channel.
From the FTC press release:
In a complaint filed in federal court, the FTC and Florida charged that, since at least 2016, the “chargeback mitigation” company and its owners, Gary Cardone and Monica Eaton Cardone, have used multiple unfair techniques to prevent consumers from successfully winning chargeback disputes.
“Chargebacks911 helped scammers stay in business and defeat chargeback attempts by consumers hit with fraudulent charges,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will continue to take aggressive action against those who undermine consumers’ ability to exercise their rights.”
This FTC lawsuit brings to mind the $10 million fine Scientologist Doug Dohring and his company ABC Mouse paid over running what the government called a “roach motel.” A roach motel is defined as a website where credit cards go in and don’t come out, i.e. it is impossible for consumers to cancel recurring billing charges.
We previously reported on how Grant Cardone pitches his prospective customers who are on the verge of bankruptcy to use credit cards to pay for sales training from Cardone’s own company and then declare bankruptcy.
Look at the hypocrisy of these two Scientology con artists: Grant Cardone wants people to pay him on credit cards and then declare bankruptcy. Gary Cardone wants to fight credit card chargebacks for his clients and yet he actually appears to be aiding and abetting scammers.
In an unrelated article today, the St. Pete Catalyst reported on Gary Cardone’s $4 million investment in the blockchain company Node40.
Cardone said he plans on investing in other crypto vehicles through his company Card1Ventures.
On his his LinkedIn page Gary Cardone states that he is the COB of Node40. It appears Cardone may have purchased controlling interest in the Node40. We say this as the St. Pete Catalyst article informs us that the Node40 team will be relocating from New Yok to Tampa Bay. We wonder how well Woodin and his Node40 team members will enjoy working in the L. Ron Hubbard Org Board business model.
The article details how Cardone met Node40 CEO Perry Woodin:
[Gary] Cardone and Node40 CEO Perry Woodin became acquainted last year after Cardone heard that local investors were eyeing the company.
He connected with Woodin via LinkedIn, inviting Woodin to visit and stay at his Tierra Verde estate. Over a two-week period with Woodin staying at Cardone’s home, the duo built a trusted relationship, leading to the execution of an agreement.
Cardone promised to funnel $4 million in exchange for control of the commercialization of Node40’s business-to-business model, while Woodin’s team would remain fully focused on creating the tech behind the product…
“Their [Card1Ventures] investment and expertise in disruptive technologies will greatly benefit our company’s growth and help us further solidify our position as a leader in the blockchain infrastructure space,” Woodin said in a prepared statement.
Cardone expects the 40-plus Node40 team to relocate from New York to Tampa Bay.
“You have Cathie Wood [founder of ARK Invest], Blockspaces, KnowBe4 and FIS that are all based here. This is the place to be,” Cardone said.
Cardone said he can visualize Node40 following a similar growth journey as Chargebacks 911, which Cardone founded with his former wife, Monica Eaton Cardone, who currently runs the company.
The St. Pete Catalyst article caught our eye us because it was released only six days after the FTC and the State of Florida sued Gary Cardone and his ex-wife Monica. The article declares that while Gary Cardone founded Chargebacks911 with his ex, she now runs the company. Which means the lawsuit is Monica’s fault if we follow Gary Cardone’s logic.
Is Gary Cardone trying to get out ahead of the story by blaming his ex-wife Monica? This is what it looks like to us.
In terms of Gary Cardone’s interest in gaining control of “the commercialization of Node40’s business-to-business model” his motives are easy enough to speculate upon given the FTC and State of Florida’s very serious allegations and lawsuit against Chargebacks911.
Monica Eaton was honored as a 2023 Businesswoman of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Will she have to give the trophy back if she loses the lawsuit?
The Press Release:
FTC and the State of Florida v. Gary Cardone and Monica Eaton:
Categories: The Scientology Money Project
It is telling that the efforts to support holding on to disgruntled customers’ money were supported only by screenshots. Had these customers entered legally defensible contracts which clearly spelled out their obligations, all the allegedly defrauded merchants had to do was present these contracts to the credit card companies.
In a video that Gary did with his brother Grant (shown in Aaron’s video), he bragged that he had performed an “audit” on his bro’s company with the goal of “putting you into a more compliant atmosphere.” Note what he is NOT saying: He is NOT claiming that he will advise corporate clients on how to be compliant, i.e. operate lawfully–what a legitimate audit would be all about.
Instead, he is offering to create an “atmosphere” where a business APPEARS to be acting lawfully and ideally escapes gov’t scrutiny and banks’ fraud algorithms. Atmosphere is just another word for smoke screen, or additional layers of fraud. It’s reminiscent of the way scientology structures its corporate entities to escape transparency and accountability.
Thanks for ragging on their immorality.
A religion is supposed to build up morality, and as an atheist, I still wish the world’s religions do do good, and build morality.
Hubbard’s faux religious followers clearly follow Hubbard’s own immorality in their lives.
it is a losing proposition for Scientologists to follow Hubbard, unless they “squirrel” and consciously NOT follow the full Hubbard immoral “orthodox” Scientology allowed options.
Only the squirrel Scientologists, to me, have figured out how to remain more moral, despite Hubbard’s full menu of nastiness.
Even Hubbard, I think, had he lived more, might have grappled differently with the immorality reputation Scientology has accumulated. Maybe not.
If the cult leader, Hubbard, dead and can’t do anything to undo the damage he’s left, had he lived longer, and decided to pull the plug on the worstest parts of his cult followers’ rules, maybe official Scientology wouldn’t continue their nasty irreligious path they are stuck with.
Squirrel (splinter) Scientologists if their groups somehow carry on, after the lives of their pretty uniformly more moral leader followers are over, if the next gen splinter Scientologists do carry on, I’d be curious how the next gen splinter Scientologists make out.
The rich official Scientologists who are scam artist slippery types, woe to all connected to them.
Thanks for focusing on the baddies.
Chuck Beatty
x Team Xenu (Sea Org lifer staff fool) 75 to 03
Grant Cardone has an identical twin!??