FTC Mails Redress Checks to Invention Promotion Scam Victims
The Federal Trade Commission is mailing more than 17,000 checks to amateur inventors defrauded by a group of swindlers who falsely promised to evaluate their ideas and help them earn substantial income from their inventions.
At FTCs request, in 2007 a federal court found Julian Gumpel, Darrell Mormando, Michael Fleisher, Greg Wilson, and the Patent & Trademark Institute in contempt for violating a 1998 court order that prohibited false claims for invention promotion services and ordered them to pay $60 million. The redress fund represents the defendants available assets. (See September 6, 2007 press release at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/09/inventionswindle.shtm)
Consumers who paid to have their ideas evaluated will receive $24.83; those who also paid for other services will receive $323.29.
Consumers who receive checks should cash them on or before August 31, 2010. Checks are being mailed by the redress administrator. Consumers with questions should call the administrator at 1-877-678-0735.
Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTCs website at http://www.ftc.gov/ and from the FTCs Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.
MEDIA CONTACT: