Restitution Made in Telemarketing Case
More than 30 victims of a Ventura-based telemarketing “boiler room” operation have received between $40 and $60 in restitution, the district attorney’s office said Tuesday.
On Aug. 22, Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden issued orders preventing the owners of Federal Resource Registry and Reader’s Choice from making false statements about their businesses.
Ventura residents Stan Snyder, Victoria Snyder and William Webster as well as the California corporation Klear Oil Inc., and the Wyoming corporation Western Geo Tech Inc., were responsible for the companies.
A lawsuit stated that the companies advertised in publications nationwide and in Canada claiming “Reading Books Earns $1,000 a Week” and “Land for $1 Acre” that could “produce a fortune in oil and gas income.”
Respondents would receive a sales pitch for “manuals,” which according to the district attorney’s office, talked about starting a home-based business as a proofreader or how to bid on federal and state lands.
Rather than change their business practices, “the businesses elected to close their doors,” said Mitchell Disney, a deputy district attorney.
The restitution, a total of $1,667.94, was paid to 34 people throughout the United States who paid for manuals but did not receive them, he said. Each received slightly less than was paid.
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