After being sued and settling with the US Federal Trade Commission over the deceptive trade practices of their company Chargebacks911, Scientologist Gary Cardone and his non-Scientologist Ex-Wife Monica Eaton are now being sued in a Civil RICO class action lawsuit. The class action was just certified in late August 2024.

This lawsuit was filed in 2023 and the defendants unsuccessfully fought to have the case dismissed. Failing that, the defendants fought for a stay in the Second Circuit. However, the Federal Court of the Middle District of Florida certified the class action and approved the plaintiff’s lawyers to proceed with notifying the members of the class. 

At issue is the allegation that Gary Cardone and Monica Eaton engaged in racketeering with their co-conspirators in a Keto diet scam in which useless products were sold online by false and misleading means. The lawsuit makes the extremely serious accusation that Cardone and Eaton engaged in wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. These are the predicate crimes necessary to establish a RICO case. 

We predict that this case will result in criminal charges being filed against Cardone and Eaton. Our prediction is based upon following and reporting on the GPB Capital Holdings case for five years. The trajectory and structure of the alleged fraud we see in the Chargebacks911 legal documents follows, we think, the same basic arc of premeditated criminal activity as happened at GPB Capital Holdings.

In the GPB Capital Holdings case, Scientologist David Gentile and his non-Scientology partner Jeffry Schneider were convicted on August 2, 2024 on several counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud; wire fraud; conspiracy to commit securities fraud; and securities fraud. Now convicted felons, both men face up to 240 months in Federal prison when they are sentenced next month in Brooklyn. 

Kneupper & Covey is the law firm representing the plaintiff class. Writing on LinkedIn, partner Kevin Kneupper stated that damages could go as high as $210 million plus prejudgment interest: 

The Complaint:

Class Action Certification: