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Matthew Whitaker, the new Acting Attorney General of Donald Trump, was involved in a company that was scamming US veterans into sparing their lives, according to information gathered during court interviews .
Whitaker, a former US lawyer in Iowa, was paid to work as a member of the advisory board of World Patent Marketing (WPM), a Florida-based company accused by the US government of cheating millions of dollars. dollars by inventing budding inventors. Earlier this year, he was sentenced to pay $ 26 million to the authorities.
Several veterans, including two disabled, said they lost tens of thousands of dollars through the WPM scam, having been prompted to pay for patent and licensing services issued by Whitaker and his other advisers. None said they were dealing directly with Whitaker.
"The World Patent Marketing has annihilated emotionally, mentally and financially," said last year at a federal court Melvin Kiaaina, of Hawaii, adding that he had entrusted the company her savings for life, partly because she "had respected the members of the board of directors".
Aged 60, he said he was a disabled veteran paratrooper from the US military and paid the company in 2015 and 2016 to patent and promote his ideas about fishing gear.
"I did not receive anything for the $ 14,085 that I paid to the company, except for a poor-quality design and logo that my grandson could have created," he said. he declared.
Kiaaina and other WPM clients have described their experiences in written court declarations under penalty of perjury, in a civil suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against WPM and its general manager , Scott Cooper. The e-mails in evidence showed that desperate customers were asking Cooper and his team to recover their money.
"You have caused me immense grief, I can not sleep, my stress level is at a record level and the last of my savings has been stolen without result," wrote an unemployed widow, who lost $ 8,000. at Cooper in December 2016. Another inventor who paid $ 12,000 said that he still had "a stress-related illness that is gnawing at my hair".
In particular, WPM has made itself known as a champion of those who have served in the military. "Not only are we honoring veterans and soldiers in our armed forces, but we are also celebrating what they are protecting – the American dream," said the president in a statement on Veterans Day 2014. , which highlighted Whitaker's role in the company. WPM claimed to have made an unspecified donation to the non-profit organization Wounded Warrior Project, which did not respond to an email requesting payment confirmation.
Whitaker publicly testified for WPM, claiming in a December 2014 statement that she went beyond merely declaring "ethical" business and translating[d] these words in action ".
He said, "I will only align with a first class organization."
But customers have reported to the authorities that they have been treated unethically by a company that, under its glossy marketing brochures, was a lousy business.
Dennis Artman, a veteran of the Army Air Force and Air Force for 24 years from Washington State, has took $ 25,000 on his retirement savings account in 2015 to allow WPM to patent and promote a wearable device that his then wife had created to shake sleeping drivers and wake them up. guide them to accommodation.
"He said," I know it's a lot of money, but I believe it and I believe in you, "said his ex-wife, Gwendolyn Artman, 58, In an interview, Gwendolyn Artman said he received about 25 emails from WPM extolling the background of Whitaker and other board members.
In late 2015, Artman stated that WPM had stopped sending out calls and e-mails. Cooper telephoned the Attorney General of Florida to ask him to withdraw his complaint and promise to pay his fine. Once again, nothing has materialized.
The Artmans divorced this year after more than 10 years of marriage. Gwendolyn, who runs a non-profit treatment center for people suffering from opioid addiction, said the WPM saga was partly to blame.
"I think he's lost confidence in me," she says. "It was a lot of money, and he blamed me for losing it."
Kerri Kupec, spokesperson for the Department of Justice, said in an email: "The Acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker, said that he was unaware of any fraudulent activity. All stories suggesting the opposite are false. "
Cooper's lawyers did not respond to e-mails requesting comments. Cooper denied committing a wrongdoing in the case of the FTC. He was finally ordered to pay $ 1 million and hand over any proceeds from the sale of his $ 3.5 million mansion to Miami, in exchange for the suspension of the remaining $ 26 million judgment.
Some veterans who donated money to WPM were impressed by the inclusion in the advisory board of Congressman Brian Mast, a Florida Republican who had lost both his legs at one time. bombing in September 2010 while he was serving in the army in Afghanistan.
One of these veterans, identified in court documents and in company documents as "John D", complained to Cooper that WPM had abandoned him after using his Veteran status to promote his idea of a new type of umbrella.
"I'm sure he'll be your best supporter," wrote John D de Mast in a September 2016 e-mail, "but what about my product?"
Mast, who was re-elected this week, said in a statement in court that Cooper had appointed him a member of the advisory council without his consent, after meeting them twice in February 2016, at an event and then at the WPM offices in Miami. Last year, he returned $ 5,400 in campaign donations donated by Cooper.
Another WPM client, Ryan Masti, who served in the Navy and suffers from dyslexia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), said a WPM representative boasting about the relationship with the company with Whitaker and Mast during a promotional phone call that had persuaded him to hand over money.
Masti told the court that he had lost more than $ 75,000 after paying WPM to register, develop and promote his idea of "Socialally Accepted", a social network for people with disabilities. In exchange, he received only a press release, a logo and a poor quality website template.
"I used money to make a dream of helping people," Masti said in an interview Friday. "And I lost everything."
Masti, a 26-year-old farmer from upstate New York, borrowed $ 50,000 from his father's retirement account, took out a commercial loan of about $ 20,000. dollars and used $ 7,000 that he had inherited from his late grandfather, a veteran of World War II. A WPM executive told him that he "could make a million sales" to a minimum, he said.
After voting with enthusiasm for Trump in 2016, Masti said Friday that he would soon change his party affiliation, which should result in the influx of Democrats, following from the rise of President Whitaker by the President.
"It's totally ridiculous," said Masti. "It hurts the whole Republican Party so badly. How could a president name someone like that? And then do not have a problem about it when it comes out? He should take care of the victims.
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