FTC Charges Michigan Company in $213 Million Pyramid Scheme

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a $12 million settlement with a business accused of running a nationwide pyramid scheme that defrauded people of hundreds of millions of dollars. The settlement is related to a lawsuit filed by the FTC against Michigan-based Financial Education Services (FES) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2022, which issued a temporary restraining order. FES told customers that they could remove negative information from people’s credit reports and increase credit scores by hundreds of points, according to the complaint. For this, they charged as much as $89 a month....