Zurixx, LLC

The funnel

Zurixx sold coaching on buying, renovating and reselling houses, a practice known as flipping. Its advertising featured endorsements from television personalities including Tarek and Christina El Moussa of “Flip or Flop”, Hilary Farr of “Love It or List It”, and Peter Souhleris and Dave Seymour of “Flipping Boston”, inviting people to free events promising to teach them to profit “using other people’s money.”

The free event was a sales presentation for a three-day workshop costing $1,997. Attendees were told the workshop would teach them everything needed to make substantial income. Presenters at the workshop then described it as merely a “beginner” course, while selling further products and services costing as much as $41,297.

The credit card instruction

This is the part that separates Zurixx from an ordinary overpriced seminar. Presenters routinely directed attendees to obtain new credit cards or raise the limits on existing ones, ostensibly to finance real estate deals.

They allegedly told attendees to give card issuers income figures significantly higher than their actual income, on the basis of the income they were expected to earn later from investing. Presenters then suggested using that new credit to pay Zurixx for advanced training.

Silencing complaints

Zurixx allegedly required some consumers who received a refund to sign agreements barring them from speaking with the FTC, state attorneys general and other regulators, from complaining to the Better Business Bureau, and from posting negative reviews. That drew charges under the Consumer Review Fairness Act.

The settlement

The defendants are permanently banned from marketing or selling any real estate or business coaching programme, from misleading earnings claims, and from contract terms restricting reviews or contact with law enforcement.

Judgments total more than $111 million: $104.7 million against the corporate defendants, now defunct and in receivership with roughly $5 million in remaining assets, plus $2.33 million against each of the three owners and their associated entities. Approximately $12 million goes to consumer redress.

In July 2024 the FTC sent more than $12 million to 25,563 consumers.

As Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection director put it, the recovered funds are “pennies on the dollar when compared to the harm done.”

What is not established

A stipulated final order resolves the allegations without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.