Thousand Oaks Company Fined $25M For Work-At-Home Scheme

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has fined a California company $25 million for misleading 110,000 people to buy into a work-at-home scheme that almost never paid off.

U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson banned The Zaken Corp. on Wednesday from advertising or selling work-at-home business opportunities in the future.

The Justice Department says the Thousand Oaks company claimed associates who purchased a $148 business plan could earn $3,000 to $6,000 in a few hours by locating excess inventory that Zaken would sell.

Customers often received very little in return, including an outdated telephone directory of mostly defunct businesses.

Pregerson says fewer than 1 percent of customers earned any income.

Prosecutors say the company aggressively tried to sell additional business tools for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

A telephone listing for the company was disconnected.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Read more
f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.