Fed. Trade Comm'n v. Ettus (In re Ettus)

596 B.R. 405
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Florida.
DecidedAugust 2, 2018
DocketCase No.: 16-19239-JKO; Adv. Case No.: 16-01473-JKO
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 596 B.R. 405 (Fed. Trade Comm'n v. Ettus (In re Ettus)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, S.D. Florida. primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fed. Trade Comm'n v. Ettus (In re Ettus), 596 B.R. 405 (Fla. 2018).

Opinion

John K. Olson, Judge

THIS ADVERSARY PROCEEDING came before the Court on June 6, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. upon the Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC" or "Plaintiff") Motion for Summary Judgment [ECF 53]. The Plaintiff's Complaint [ECF 1] sought a determination that judgment debt in favor of the FTC in the amount of $ 2,825,761.28 was excepted from discharge for false pretenses pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A). Mr. Michael Robert Ettus ("Defendant" or "Ettus") denied these propositions of fraud [ECF 5].

The Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment [ECF 53] asks this Court to "enter an order finding the FTC's Judgment against Ettus in the amount of $ 2,825,761.28 (plus post-judgment interest) is excepted from discharge" [ECF 53]. Defendant has denied these allegations in his response to Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment, asserting that he did not "intend" to defraud consumers [ECF 62]. The only issue before the Court is whether or not Defendant intended to deceive his *408customers when he failed to disclose material information to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service ("DOACS"), wrote scripts to be used to entice customers which included information he knew to be false, required an illegal upfront fee, and received numerous complaints from customers about not obtaining the promised results. Upon further consideration and after hearing argument from both parties, Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment [ECF 53] is GRANTED .

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In November, 2014, the FTC sued Ettus and his company, Consumer Collections Advocates ("CCA") in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that they defrauded customers in a telemarketing investment recovery scam (the "Enforcement Action"). FTC v. Consumer Collections Advocates Corp. and Michael Robert Ettus , Case No. 0:14-cv-62491-BB, 2015 WL 3767359 (S.D. Fla.). The District Court granted Summary Judgment in favor of the FTC, and found Ettus personally liable in the amount of $ 2,825,761.28 [ECF 44, p. 2-3]. However, the District Court specifically noted that the FTC was not required to establish intent to find Ettus personally liable [ECF 44, p. 9]. Ettus appealed the District Court's decision solely on whether he should be held personally liable. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, stating that because he "participated directly in, and had authority to control CCA's deceptive practices and that he had some knowledge of those deceptive practices," the District Court did not err in finding Ettus personally liable. FTC v. Consumer Collection Advocates Corp. , 668 Fed. App'x. 357, 358 (11th Cir. 2016).

In 2016, Ettus filed a voluntary Chapter 7 petition (16-19239-JKO), which commenced his bankruptcy case. FTC filed a complaint (16-01473-JKO) disputing the dischargeability of the $ 2,825,761.28 judgment pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) [ECF 1] ("Plaintiff's Complaint"). The Plaintiff filed an initial Motion for Summary Judgment [ECF 8] alleging that Defendant obtained the money by false pretenses, false representations, or actual fraud pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) (Count I) and that the Enforcement Action against the Defendant prevented the Ettus from re-litigating the case based on the Doctrine of Collateral Estoppel (Count II). The Bankruptcy Court granted Summary Judgment in favor of the Plaintiff, and the judgment against the Defendant in the amount of $ 2,825,761.28 was found non-dischargeable under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A) ("First Summary Judgment") [ECF 28].

Ettus appealed the First Summary Judgment to the District Court [ECF 30] on the sole issue of "intent." On appeal (Case No.: 1:17-cv-60492), the District Court found "the bankruptcy court's application of collateral estoppel was [in] error" because the Enforcement Action did not analyze Ettus' intent to deceive [ECF 43, p. 7]. The District Court further stated that "[t]he bankruptcy court's brief statement of reasoning does not make clear whether the bankruptcy court concluded, solely on the basis of collateral estoppel [...], or whether it considered the competing evidence and found no material issue of fact about Ettus's intent" [ECF 43, p. 8]. The District Court reversed the Bankruptcy Court's ruling on the First Summary Judgment and remanded the case for "further adjudication" on the sole element of intent. [ECF 43, p. 9].

UNDISPUTED RELEVANT FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Ettus was a veteran telemarketer, who first obtained his Florida telemarketing license in 2008, and managed, owned, or *409worked in at least six (6) different companies involved in marketing or reselling timeshares [ECF 54, ¶ 1]. Ettus was aware of the kinds of deceptive practices that forced telemarketing companies out of business and admitted that one of the companies he was employed at, Timeshare Marketing Pro, was the subject of an FTC action [ECF 54, ¶ 4]. Timeshare Marketing Pro was shut down by the FTC in October 2010 because it made false representations to consumers FTC v. Timeshare Mega Media & Marketing Group, Inc., et al. , Civ. No. 10-cv-62000-WJZ (S.D. Fla. 2010). Additionally, the previous six telemarketing companies at which Ettus was employed along with the companies that he owned or managed were the subject of numerous consumer complaints [ECF 54, ¶ 1].

Defendant was president of the solely-owned company, CCA, which was a telemarketing program originally designed to recover money consumers lost in telemarketing scams [ECF 54, ¶ 8].1 When obtaining his telemarketing license for CCA, Ettus failed to disclose his previous association with businesses that engaged in deceptive activities [ECF 54, ¶ 6]. Moreover, Ettus falsely stated on the license application to the DOACS that he did not provide sales information or marketing materials to his telemarketers (Question 12), and that the telemarketers did not use sales scripts (Question 11) [ECF 54, ¶ 14]. In fact, Ettus used scripts, contracts, and verification scripts from his previous business and submitted these scripts to DOACS to obtain his license [ECF 54, ¶¶ 12-13]. Ettus admitted to creating these scripts and was responsible for the finished sales scripts and placed the scripts on every telemarketer's desk in the CCA premises [ECF 54, ¶¶ 17-18, 19]. Ettus claims that he believed he and CCA were complying with the relevant laws, and that by licensing himself and his telemarketers, his scripts had been inherently or impliedly approved by the Florida DOACS [ECF 62, ¶ 2].

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
596 B.R. 405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fed-trade-commn-v-ettus-in-re-ettus-flsb-2018.