Thrive Learning, LLC

Also known as: Business Education Department, Focus, Lightwave Web Builder, Thrive Learning Institute.

The FTC alleged that Thrive Learning sold business coaching to people trying to start home-based internet businesses, who were left with no functioning business, little or no earnings, and heavily in debt.

Resolved. Refunded, settled, ceased operating, or the claim did not hold up. Kept for the record.

What buyers were left with

The FTC alleged that the defendants offered business coaching services to people trying to start home-based internet businesses, and that those who signed up were left with no functioning business, little or no earnings, and heavily in debt.

The sales tactics described in the complaint have a recognizable shape. The defendants falsely promised that clients were likely to earn substantial income, that the training was personalized and open only to qualified participants, and that they needed the buyer’s financial information to determine whether they qualified.

The qualification framing does two things at once: it flatters the buyer into believing they have been selected, and it extracts the financial details that reveal how much they can be sold. After paying, typically thousands of dollars, buyers were targeted with further calls to buy more services.

Credit card factoring

Some defendants in the wider case allegedly gave other telemarketers access to their merchant accounts, an illegal practice known as credit card factoring, letting telemarketers who could not obtain merchant accounts of their own process sales through them.

The order

Thrive Learning and Matthew and David Rasmussen are banned from selling business coaching services and work-at-home opportunities. Their order imposes a $27 million judgment, partially suspended on payment of $1.6 million and the surrender of certain assets, becoming due in full if they misrepresented their finances.

The Rasmussens and Thrive Learning sold the business to Lift International LLC in August 2013, and that buyer and its principals were defendants in a separate complaint resolved at the same time.

What is not established

Stipulated final orders resolve allegations without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.

Sources

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