Whitaker has ties to company FTC called 'a scam'

Matthew Whitaker, who was named acting attorney general by President Donald Trump on Wednesday in the wake of Jeff Sessions' resignation, has ties to a Florida-based company that came under fire from the Federal Trade Commission last year, which sued the firm for allegedly running an “invention-promotion scam.” Whitaker sat on the board of World Patent Marketing, Inc., an invention marketing company the FTC has called “a scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars”, from 2014 until 2017, when a federal court in Miami temporarily halted the company’s operations and froze its assets. According to court filings, the FTC alleged that the company lured in customers by publishing fraudulent “success stories,” failed to deliver on promises, and took drastic measures to suppress negative reviews. The FTC did not accuse Whitaker of any wrongdoing. The FTC’s lawsuit concluded in a settlement, in which World Patent Marketing, Inc neither admitted nor denied the...