A recent court document filed by the US Federal Trade Commission and the Florida State Attorney General states that defendants Gary Cardone, Monica Eaton and their company Chargebacks911 have signed a proposed a settlement to end the Civil RICO lawsuit filed against them for their many violations of law related to deceptive trade practices. Scroll down to read the court document.

The US FTC and the State of Florida requested a 45 day stay to allow the FTC Commissioners to review the settlement. Based on the case record, it appears the settlement has been accepted as the docket shows the case was terminated on October 18, 2023.

Defendants Gary Cardone, Monica Eaton, and Chargebacks911 previously filed a motion to stay discovery pending their amended motion get the case against them dismissed.

It appears the defendants decided the FTC and the State of Florida had a very strong case against them and the chance of getting their case dismissed was somewhere far below minus zero.

The risk of  Cardone and Eaton going into discovery against US Federal and State prosecutors could have lead to a disaster and perhaps even criminal charges.

Based upon the $233 million in fraud committed by Chargebacks911’s scammer clients AH Media Group, Apex Capital, and F9 Advertising, we would expect a settlement paid by Chargebacks911 to be in the mid-tens of millions of dollars range.

The settlement could require Gary Cardone and Monica Eaton to exit the credit card chargeback industry altogether. This type of settlement is typically made with stockbrokers who are fined, lose their Series 7 and other licenses, and are banned from the stock trading industry.

If these terms are imposed on the defendants as a part of a settlement what happens to Chargebacks911 remains the only question: Does the company go out of business? Inasmuch as Chargebacks911’s operations are, as alleged,  based on deceptive trade practices, there does not seem to be any good path going forward for the company.

The FTC will issue a press release as soon as the settlement is signed and formalized and we will post it here.