Amidst the accelerating news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of March, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would be refunding “more than $1 million” to victims of an “invention promotion business.” The FTC says they identified the consumers targeted by World Patent Marketing Inc. (WPM) and Desa Industries Inc. as those in need of a refund. It’s something. But the FTC’s announcement forgot to mention that Trump’s former acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, used to be on the advisory board of WPM.
What also seems to have slipped the minds of those writing the FTC announcement is that Whitaker is suspected of having known that WPM was running a scam at the time. In fact, the FTC also forgot to report that Trump’s former AG sent threatening letters to a consumer who called out the scam and purportedly lost tens of thousands of dollars in that scam.