Pyramid Scheme
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, New York, in 2018, alleges Trump received millions of dollars in secret payments “to promote and endorse” ACN, a marketing company promoting a new type of video phone. The lawsuit alleges that Trump promoted the product on the TV show Celebrity Apprentice without disclosing that ACN was paying him.
Trump claimed that ACN’s video phones were doing “half-a-billion dollars’ worth of sales a year.” “Trump also told investors that he had ‘experienced the opportunity’ and ‘done a lot of research,’ and that his endorsement was ‘not for any money.’ Not a word of this was true,” the lawsuit states. Newsweek sought email comment on Saturday from Donald Trump’s attorney, John Lauro, and from Roberta Kaplan, the attorney representing the plaintiffs.
ACN began marketing a video phone that was “essentially a desktop, wired telephone with a video screen and webcam in addition to the usual handset and keypad,” according to the lawsuit. It was only compatible with other ACN phones and subscriptions. “Trump repeatedly praised ACN’s ‘great product’—its ‘new ACN Video Phone.’ But ACN’s video phone was anything but great—the product was doomed almost from the outset,” the plaintiff’s complaint states.
The trial begins January 29.
