The FTC Just Mailed 19,744 Refund Checks for a Coaching Program. They Averaged $91.

Somewhere in America this summer, roughly 19,744 people opened an envelope from a refund administrator and found a cheque for about ninety dollars.

That is the tail end of one of the largest coaching enforcement actions the FTC has ever run. Because money was still left in the fund, the FTC is sending 19,744 payments totaling more than $1.8 million to people who accepted their first payment, and asks them to cash within 90 days. Divide it out and the average lands around $91.

The program those people bought started at $1,997.

The company

The FTC and the Utah Department of Commerce Division of Consumer Protection sued Zurixx and its owners, Cristopher Cannon, James Carlson and Jeffrey Spangler, in September 2019. The complaint, as later amended, alleged the defendants ran a real estate investment coaching scheme that sold live seminars and telephone coaching using false earnings claims, convincing consumers to pay thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on the promise of quick profits from "flipping" or wholesaling real estate using Zurixx's system.

The funnel will look familiar to anyone who has ever built one. Free seminars were, regulators alleged, high-pressure sales events for paid seminars costing $1,997, after which the defendants pushed more expensive seminars and coaching that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Presenters, according to the FTC and UDCP, encouraged consumers to open new credit cards to pay for the training, promising the profits from flipping or wholesaling homes would quickly pay off the new debt.

Top of funnel was borrowed fame. The defendants bolstered sales by partnering with home-improvement and flipping television personalities.

And the refund process itself became part of the case. The FTC and DCP also alleged Zurixx required consumers who received refunds to sign agreements barring them from speaking with the FTC, state attorneys general and other regulators, submitting complaints to the Better Business Bureau, or posting negative reviews about Zurixx.

The ban

The defendants agreed to a settlement in February 2022 that included a monetary judgment and permanently banned them from marketing or selling any real estate or business coaching programs, prohibited misleading earnings claims, and barred contract terms restricting consumers' ability to review their products.

The judgment numbers are where the story gets instructive. The order imposed $104.7 million against the corporate defendants, which are now defunct and under receivership with remaining assets of approximately $5 million to partially satisfy the judgment. It also imposed $2.33 million against Cristopher Cannon and associated entities, and $2.33 million against James M. Carlson and associated entities.

A nine-figure paper judgment. Around $12 million that actually moves.

"Preying on struggling Americans with empty promises of quick riches is against the law," said Samuel Levine, then director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These defendants have been banned from the coaching business and ordered to return millions to consumers."

What the buyer got

Round one arrived more than two years after the settlement. In July 2024 the FTC sent more than $12 million in refunds to consumers who paid Zurixx for a real estate investment training program that allegedly made empty promises about earning big profits by flipping houses. The agency's own refunds report logs the Zurixx distribution at $12,352,681.90 across 25,563 recipients, with 17,378 cashing, a 68% participation rate. Average cheque: roughly $483.

Of that, more than $10.3 million was actually claimed. The rest sat there, which is why the second round exists, and why it went only to people who accepted their first payment.

So the running total for a customer who bought the entry seminar, cashed both cheques and did nothing wrong is somewhere near $574. Against $1,997 at the low end. Against tens of thousands at the high end.

"Fail 98% of the Time"

The Zurixx arithmetic is not unusual. Look at Lurn, the Maryland online business coaching seller.

The FTC sued Lurn in September 2023, alleging it made unfounded claims to sell money-making programs, including that buyers could become a "Stay-At-Home Millionaire" with one program and, for another, that they could "Fail 98% of the Time & Still Be Able to Make $11,453 Per Month." According to the complaint, the company had no information to back up these claims and very few, if any, consumers actually made money.

The $11,453 figure came from a specific offer. The $1,588 Printable Profits course was pitched in a video where defendant David Kettner described a "simple easy and proven system" of finding mugs that sold well on Amazon and using an app to create similar designs, claiming that even if 98% of designs flopped, the remaining 2% still meant $11,453 a month. Buyers were then followed up by telemarketers pitching consulting programs with names like "Digital Business Accelerator" and "Marketplace Mastery," costing as much as $10,000.

Lurn, CEO Anik Singal and spokespeople Tyrone Cohen and David Kettner agreed to court orders requiring them to stop the practices, with Lurn and Singal turning over $2.5 million. The order against Lurn and Singal carried a total monetary judgment of $14,077,121, partially suspended based on inability to pay the full amount, payable in full if they were found to have lied about their finances.

The FTC then sent payments to 1,922 Lurn consumers, distributing more than $2.4 million to people who paid for Lurn's business consulting programs and were deceived about how much money they could make. Fewer buyers, bigger tickets, so the cheques landed near $1,250 each.

The part course sellers should read twice

What the enforcement record actually shows is how the case gets built. Not from a whistleblower. From marketing assets.

The seminar script. The video interview. The specific monthly income figure printed on a sales page. The upsell call. The refund agreement with a non-disparagement clause attached. Lurn had even received a Notice of Penalty Offenses from the FTC in October 2021 listing specific acts and practices that violate the FTC Act, and kept selling.

Years later, a regulator reassembles all of it and asks a single question: what evidence did you have when you promised that number?

For Zurixx, the answer produced a permanent industry ban for three owners, a defunct corporate group in receivership, and a final mailing of 19,744 envelopes containing about ninety dollars each. "Many victims will finally be getting some justice," Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said when the first round went out.

Justice, in this case, arrived seven years after the lawsuit and does not cover one month of the original payment plan.