The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought action against a Florida-based online business –known as Ganadores Online and Ganadores Inversiones Bienes Raíces – which offered allegedly fraudulent real estate investment training targeted to primarily Spanish-speaking consumers.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, where the initial complaint was filed, granted the FTC’s request for a temporary restraining order against Ganadores and its operators.
Among other requirements, the order prohibits the defendants from making unsupported marketing claims, violating the business opportunity rule and cooling off rule, and from interfering with consumers’ ability to review Ganadores and its products.
“This scheme made grand promises of life-changing returns in Spanish but hid key terms in English-language contracts that many consumers could not read,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said. “They took millions of dollars from Spanish-speaking consumers seeking to better their lives and provide for their families, and it’s time to hold them accountable for the significant injury they have caused.”
In the FTC’s complaint, it alleged that individuals in leadership positions with Ganadores – Richard Alvarez, Robert Shemin, and Bryce Chamberlain – previously participated in a similar scheme called Zurixx, which was sued by the FTC in 2019. The FTC also alleged that Richard and Sara Alvarez took part in FBA Stores, another similar scheme sued by the FTC in 2018.
According to the FTC, Ganadores operates much like these past schemes, starting with social media and other online advertising touting free “seminars” coming to the viewer’s area where Richard Alvarez and Shemin will share strategies to make big money in real estate.
The FTC asserts, in reality, these seminars are nothing but a sales pitch for the company’s three-day workshops, which cost consumers hundreds of dollars to attend. At the seminars, company salespeople claim those who attend the workshops will learn everything they need to know to make money either running online businesses or investing in real estate.
The workshops, the FTC alleged, are just another step in a “sales funnel” that points attendees to pay more than $28,000 for “by the hand” mentoring services that will supposedly result in purchasers making six-figure incomes.
“While consumers are promised one-on-one mentoring by experts in online sales or real estate, six-figure incomes, and access to special money-making software, … the ‘mentoring’ rarely delivers on Ganadores’ promises,” the FTC stated.
Customers often interact with mentors in large group calls, are told to use public websites like Google or Zillow in lieu of the company’s often-faulty software, and they do not earn back the money they paid for the mentoring, let alone six-figure incomes.
The FTC further charged that when consumers realized that Ganadores’ services were not what they promised and sought refunds, the defendants unfairly relied on a clause buried in the sales paperwork that gave consumers only three days to seek a refund. The complaint also charged that, while the company’s marketing and sales are conducted largely in Spanish, Ganadores’ contracts with their disclosures are often provided in English, despite the fact that many of their customers have limited to no English fluency.
The FTC is asking the federal court to permanently stop Ganadores’ unlawful practices and operations and return funds to consumers injured by this scheme.