Air AI Technologies, Inc.

What the FTC alleged

On 25 August 2025 the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, case number 2:25-cv-03068, assigned to Judge Susan M. Brnovich.

The defendants are Air AI Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation also doing business as Air AI and Scale 13; five Arizona limited liability companies (Apex Holdings Group, Apex Scaling, Apex 4 Kids, New Life Capital, and Onyx Capital); and three individuals sued both personally and as officers: Caleb Matthew Maddix, Ryan Paul O’Donnell, and Thomas Matthew Lancer.

The complaint alleges that since at least February 2023 the defendants marketed business coaching materials, a bundle of services called an “Air AI Access Card”, and licences to resell those services. The flagship claim was “conversational AI” that could replace human customer service representatives and, combined with the other services, make buyers significant money.

Buyers were told they would earn back tens of thousands of dollars within days or months, according to the FTC, and that some could make millions.

The money

The complaint states the defendants took roughly $19 million from consumers over the course of a few years.

The FTC’s press release separately notes that some consumers, many of them small business owners, lost as much as $250,000 each and were often left in debt. That is the high end of individual losses, not a total. The two figures answer different questions and are kept apart here for that reason.

The refund guarantee

The FTC alleges buyers were promised full refunds if they failed to earn a set multiple of their investment, typically two or three times within a stated number of months, or if they were simply dissatisfied.

In practice, the complaint says, refund requests were rarely honoured. The agency describes delay, leaving customers without answers, and eventually cutting off communication.

The rules invoked

The complaint alleges violations of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 310), and the Business Opportunity Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 437), including false or unsubstantiated earnings claims, false refund and buy-back guarantee claims, and failure to provide the disclosure documents and earnings claim statements the Business Opportunity Rule requires.

The Commission vote to file was 3-0.

Outcome

The FTC’s case page records that in March 2026 the Commission announced Air AI will be banned from marketing business opportunities as part of a settlement.

What is not established

A complaint states the government’s case; it is not a finding of fact, and a settlement resolves allegations without any admission of wrongdoing. Nothing here should be read as a court ruling that the defendants did what was alleged.

We have not yet contacted Air AI Technologies or the named individuals for comment. When we do, the attempt and any response will appear on this entry.