The United States District Court in Tampa has ordered the FTC and the State of Florida (the plaintiffs) into mediation with defendants Gary Cardone and his ex-wife Monica Eaton and their company Chargebacks911.

The Court had set a deadline for mediation of December 1, 2023 in its Case Management and Scheduling order of August 21, 2023.

In recent decades courts have routinely ordered parties into mediation so this order is pro forma. Our prediction is that mediation will fail because of the enormous gap between the seriousness of the FTC/Florida allegations and Chargebacks911’s motion to get the entire case dismissed.

In its motion for dismissal Chargebacks911 argues that it is nothing more than a clerical service. This is quite comical given the claims Chargebacks911 makes on its website about what a sophisticated company it is and how much money it can save its clients. Mere clerks, literally paper-pushers, do not perform any of the services Chargebacks911 offers.

We found Cardone and Eaton’s claims to be clerks as specious as that made by David Miscavige when his attorneys argue that he does not manage the Church of Scientology on a daily basis and is rather only in charge of a small religious corporation named RTC whose mission is to locate and destroy malicious semicolons in LRH texts.

Given the FTC and Florida’s allegations that Chargebacks911 helped three large clients defraud consumers of $233 million we were frankly surprised that the FTC and Florida did not file a criminal RICO action against the defendants

There is a current Civil RICO case against Chargebacks911, Gary Cardone, and Monica Eaton which alleges predicate acts including wire fraud.

Part of our prediction that mediation will fail in this case is based on Chargebacks911 motion to stay discovery pending a court ruling on its amended motion to dismiss. Tactically, Chargebacks911 wants to avoid discovery at all costs in hopes its Hail Mary play of filing a motion to dismiss will be granted.

We see a zero percent chance of the FTC/Florida case being dismissed but understand why Cardone and Eaton would have their attorneys file it. These two OT8’s are going to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.

Cardone and Eaton hope to avoid what will surely be a brutal discovery process with the Feds and the State of Florida. The Feds and the State of Florida presented a formidable series of allegations in their complaint which centers on Chargebacks911 engaging in a pattern of deceptive and unfair trade practices that cost consumers several hundred million dollars.

Plaintiffs FTC/Florida filed a motion to oppose Chargebacks911 motion to stay discovery. This motion is powerful and restates the case. Our reading of the FTC/Florida motion suggests to us that the plaintiffs want this case to go to court and want to begin discovery.

Scroll down to read it.

The Case Management and Scheduling order of August 21, 2023:

Plaintiffs’ Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Stay Discovery Pending Ruling on Amended Motion to Dismiss: