Attorney General Abbott has looked into many major lawsuits and settlements. One being a lengthy enforcement action against central Texas manufactured retailers who sold homes without clear titles. Another against a mortgage rescue fraud scheme claiming that their company could save homeowners from imminent foreclosure. Action was taken against a fraudulent "Yellow Pages" company in Texas deceiving business owners, nonprofits, churches and other organizations. The owner of a business called "Credit Doctor" unlawfully overstated his ability to improve consumers' credit ratings. He agreed to pay $75,000 in civil penalties and attorney fees.
While this did not happen in this case, had someone been working in this company and been able to prove that the Ceo or others in this company knew that they could not improve the credit scores, yet they willingly continued to market their programs falsely misleading consumers, then the fine would have likely been far higher. It is difficult for the courts to verify if activities like this are done knowingly, but insiders can often provide the evidence needed to clarify if the business owners are willingfully misleading consumers or doing so through thier own ignorance. Both are punishable as demonstrated here; however, the penalties for knowingly doing so are far more severe, potentially including jail time for such activities. As this is not a government related crime, this would not be rewardable under the False Claims Act. More on the case can be read below.