At the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a federal court has approved settlements requiring the forfeiture of assets valued at approximately $40 million from defendants accused of defrauding consumers nationwide. The defendants allegedly enrolled consumers, without their knowledge, into continuity plans for CBD and keto-related products they did not agree to purchase.
The court orders include monetary judgments and permanently ban the defendants from engaging in unauthorized conduct, debiting money from consumer accounts without prior authorization, and credit card laundering. Defendants are also required to relinquish claims to substantial assets to provide refunds to affected consumers.
The defendants include U.K. resident Harshil Topiwala, Florida resident Kirtan Patel, and their companies Legion Media, LLC, KP Commerce, LLC, and Pinnacle Payments, LLC. Additionally implicated are Florida resident Manindra Garg and his company Sloan Health Products, LLC.
According to the FTC’s complaint, the Legion Media defendants operated unauthorized billing scams and business impersonation scams by using shell entities to process unauthorized online charges. Sloan Health allegedly collaborated with Legion Media by shipping deceptively marketed personal care products and handling customer returns while sharing profits from the scheme.
The complaint charged the defendants with violating Section 5 of the FTC Act, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA).
Three court orders settling the FTC’s complaint impose similar conduct provisions on all defendants. These orders permanently ban them from marketing or selling any product or service using negative option features or forced upsells. They also prohibit failing to disclose costs, charges, refund policies, endorsements, free trial offers; making unsubstantiated health-related claims; violating EFTA; engaging in illegal credit card laundering practices; passing consumer billing information to another seller; and violating ROSCA.
Monetary judgments imposed by the court include a $30 million judgment against Topiwala and his companies. This judgment will be suspended upon relinquishment of bank accounts and other assets such as a collectible Michael Jordan worn jersey from 1998 Eastern Conference Semi Finals valued at $1.35 million and a Richard Mille Tourbillon Aerodyne watch worth $1.225 million.
A $30 million judgment was also imposed against Garg and Sloan Health Products but will be suspended after they turn over luxury cars, watches, jewelry among other assets. Patel and KP Commerce face a $3 million judgment which will be suspended upon transferring cryptocurrency assets valued at about $100,000 to the FTC.
The proposed orders were authorized by a unanimous 5-0 Commission vote filed in U.S District Court for Middle District of Florida's Tampa Division signed by District Court Judge John Badalamenti.
The investigation received assistance from several partners including United States Postal Inspection Service in Nashville Tennessee; Attorney General’s Offices in Florida & Tennessee; Better Business Bureau in West Florida. Lead staff attorneys on this matter are Darren H Lubetzky Vikram Jagadish Karen Dahlberg O'Connell of FTC Northeast Region.
The Federal Trade Commission promotes competition protects educates consumers never demands money makes threats tells you transfer money promises prize Learn more consumer topics report fraud scams bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov Follow FTC social media read consumer alerts business blog sign up latest news alerts
