Stock Tip Company Raging Bull Accused of $137 Million Fraud by FTC
Posted on 12/08/2020
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is going after Lighthouse Media LLC (RagingBull.com, LLC) and its associates, which include YouTube Jason Bond (real name: Jason P. Kowalik) and Jeffrey M. Bishop by filing a lawsuit in Maryland court. The FTC alleges the subscription stock website Raging Bull has defrauded consumers of over US$ 137 million. The FTC alleges that the company used COVID-19 to sell stock picks to potential customers using “deceptive marketing”. The FTC accused “Raging Bull and its operators of false or unsubstantiated earnings claims, misrepresentations regarding Raging Bull’s services, and violations of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.” The FTC is seeking an asset freeze and a permanent injunction against RagingBull.com, LLC.
Raging Bull advertisements were over social media channels such as YouTube and Facebook.
Raging Bull also didn’t verify testimonials it used, nor did it track its customers to see if they actually made money using their service, the regulator alleged.
According to the FTC complaint, “Defendants do not, in fact, provide effective strategies that consumers can reasonably use to make market-beating profits. Nor can consumers make market-beating returns by using Defendants’ trade alerts.
60. Consumers do not typically make returns like those advertised. A substantial number of consumers have lost money attempting to invest based on the “education” provided by Defendants or attempting to follow the instructors’ trade alerts.”
The complaint adds, “When touting Bond’s purported success, Defendants do not tell consumers Bond’s income is primarily derived from subscription fees consumers pay to Raging Bull and not from stock and options trading. Bond has incurred substantial and persistent losses as a result of his own stock and options trading activities.”
Pictures from lawsuit.
Figure 1: Screenshot of Raging Bull ad featuring Jeff Bishop, running on Facebook’s platforms (from Facebook Ad Library).
Figure 3: Screenshot from Jason Bond Unchained promotional webinar.